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1 



Spell o/ Alsace 

Andre Hallays 

Translated, with a foreword, by 
Frank Roy Fraprie, S. A/., F.R.P. 



X 




ILLUSTRATED 




MDCCCCXIX 



i 



BOSTON 

THE PAGE COMPANY 






\ 



Copyright, 1919, 
By The Page Company 



All rights reserved 



First Impression, June, 1919 



JUL 10 ! 9 19 

©CI.A529163 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction ix 

Author's Preface xlv 

I. Mulhouse 1 

II. ENSISHEIM. — ROUFFACH. — ISSENHEIM. — 

GUEBWILLER. — MuRBACH ... 18 

III. COLMAR 34 

IV. Ammerschwihr, Kaysersberg, and Rique- 

wihr. — Voltaire in Alsace. — 

schlestadt. — hohkoenigsbourg . 50 

V. Sainte-Odile and Obernai .... 70 
vi. sa verne. — marmoutier. — blrckenwald. 

— Saint-Jean-des-Choux ... 78 

VII. Alsace in 1903 83 

VIII. WlSSEMBOURG 101 

IX. An Excursion in the Surroundings of 

Strasburg. — The Alsatian Tradition 116 

1 X. Toward Sainte-Odile 130 

XI. "/In the Service of Germany," by M. 

Maurice Barres 148 

XII. The Castle of Martinsbourg. — Alfieri 

and the Countess of Albany . .165 
XIII. Ferrette . . . . . .181 

v 



vi Contents 



PAGE 

XIV. Haguenau and Neubotjrg . . . .197 
XV. Soultz-sous-Forets. — The Letters of the 

Baroness de Bode .... 205 

XVI. The Chateau of Reichshoffen . . . 220 

XVII. Eighteenth Century Art in Alsace . 228 

XVIII. The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 232 

XIX. Churches and Abbeys .... 266 

XX. Public Festivals 271 

XXI. The Cities of Alsace .... 281 

XXII. Unchanging Alsace 292 

Notes 313 

Index 319 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



"Old Ruined Castles, Witnesses of Feudal 

Alsace " (in full color) (See page 230) . Frontispiece 

MAP OF ALSACE viii 

POKTRAIT OF LOUIS XIV XXvi >/\ 

Portrait of Henry II xxix -■ 

Carved Wooden Door from Massevaux, Mul- 

house Museum 12 v 

The Hotel de Ville, Ensisheim . . . 19 v 

Turckheim 20 

The Abbey of Murbach 31 

The " Virgin in a Thicket of Roses " . . . 39 v 

Ammerschwihr .50 

Kaysersberg (in full color) 52 

Vineyards near Riquewihr 54^ 

A Street in Riquewihr 56 ' 

Portraits of Voltaire (photogravure) ... 58 

Portrait of Frederick the Great .... 60 

Castle of Hohkoenigsbourg (in full color) . 66 y 

The Garden of Hohkoenigsbourg . . . 68 v 

The Walls of Obernai 75 *. 

A Well at Obernai 76 - 

Portrait of Louis XVI 80 

Portrait of Stanislas Leszczynski .... 107 " 

Portrait of Marie Leszczynska (photogravure) . Ill* 

Portrait of Louis XV 114 

Old Farm at Bueswiller 124 

Court of the Alsatian Museum, Strasburg . . 128 * 
South Door of the Church of Saint Peter and 

Saint Paul, Rosheim 130 

An Ancient House, Rosheim 134 * 

vii 



viii List of Illustrations 

PAGE 

A Fourteenth Century Gate, Boersch . . 136 "' 

Eguisheim 166 v 

Portrait of Alfieri 170 ^ 

Portrait of the Countess of Albany . . .173 

Portrait of Robespierre 187 u 

"Sometimes we behold the enormous mass of 

an old castle" (in full color) . . . .189 

Portrait of Schiller 190' 

Choir of Saint Nicholas, Haguenau . . . 200 *' 

Portrait of Hoche 216 

The Chateau of Reichshoffen . . . . 221 
Portrait of Cardinal Armand Gaston de Rohan- 

Soubise 233 

Strasburg Cathedral . . . . . . 236 

Portrait of Robert de Cotte 242 

Portrait of Robert Le Lorrain .... 250 

Portrait of Napoleon 254 

The Chateau of Saverne 265 

Interior of the Church of Guebwiller . . 269 

Portrait of Goethe 279 

Portrait of Marie Antoinette .... 280 

Hohkoenigsbourg (restored) . . . . . . 295 



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INTRODUCTION 

Aftee almost half a century of alien domination, 
t?he lost provinces of France, ravished from her 
by Germany in 1871, have again been occupied by 
French troops and administered by French officials. 
Whatever else may be the terms of the Treaty of 
Peace which will officially end the Great War, 
there is no doubt in any man's mind that the 
territory Germany took in 1871 will remain French. 
No plebiscite will be taken, for none is necessary. 
The fortune of war has returned what the fortune 
of war took, and those Germans who immigrated 
into Alsace to exploit the conquered province will 
have the choice of returning whence they came or 
remaining on the soil of France. 

In this year of reunion there are doubtless many 
Americans who will find M. Hallays' book valuable 
as a recent and faithful description of the feelings 
of the people of Alsace. I hope it may be the 
means of enlightening some of the doubters as 
to the justice of giving the lost provinces back to 
France, and also that its charming descriptions 
of the picturesque scenery and architecture of 
Alsace may be the means of interesting many an 

ix 



Introduction 



American tourist, in years to come, in a visit to 
this pleasant region. It was my good fortune to 
spend a considerable part of the summer of 1913 
in the country between the Vosges and the Rhine, 
and I know no countryside in Europe which con- 
tains more to charm and interest the visitor who 
desires to get away from the beaten tracks of 
travel. 

As a study of the character of the people, as a 
description of the lovely landscapes, as an ap- 
preciation of the Renaissance architecture of 
Alsace, nothing could surpass the pages of M. 
Hallays, a fluent and polished writer, in full sym- 
pathy with his subject. He gives no space to 
Strasburg, but Strasburg is well known and ade- 
quately described by the guide books. Besides, 
the spell of a country rarely lies in great cities, 
where commerce and industry tend to submerge 
racial characteristics and render one cosmopolitan 
population like any other. Perhaps in his keen 
appreciation of French architecture he lacks some- 
what in sympathy for the older aspects of Alsace, 
and the lover of the medieval will find in the two 
provinces most charming pictures in the walls 
and watchtowers of many a free imperial city and 
in the hundreds of robber castles whose picturesque 
ruins crown so many of the outlying peaks and 
ridges of the Vosges chain. In spite of these 



Introduction xi 



small gaps however, M. Hallays has drawn a 
most sympathetic account of the life and land of 
the Alsatians. 

Writing as a Frenchman, he has felt that his 
readers were fully familiar with the history of the 
lost provinces. American readers may find that 
this is not fully treated in the works of reference 
at their command, and I therefore propose to 
briefly summarize Alsatian history, and also add 
a few paragraphs on what happened in Alsace 
during and at the end of the war. Both additions 
will be helpful in showing how events, both past 
and present, support our author's thesis throughout 
the book, that Alsace has been and is French at 
heart. 

The country that is now Alsace first appears in 
historical documents in a book which becomes so 
familiar to most of us in our school days that we 
never want to see it again, and hence do not realize 
how interesting it really is. This book is Caesar's 
Commentaries, almost at the very beginning of 
which we read of his difficulties with Ariovistus. 
This German chieftain had crossed the Rhine 
at the invitation of one of the Gallic tribes, to 
help it fight its battles. At first, 15,000 Germans 
crossed the Rhine, but instead of returning when 
the fighting was over, they took a third of the 
land of the Sequani and continued to come until 



xii Introduction 



120,000 had settled there. 'By this time they 
wanted more land and not only took it from the 
Sequani but threatened the iEdui, who, being 
allies of the Romans, appealed to Caesar for as- 
sistance. The Roman general took possession 
of Vesontio (nowBesangon), forestalling Ariovistus, 
and then had a conference with the German chief- 
tain, in or near his camp at what is now Colmar 
in Alsace. Caesar's troops were frankly afraid 
of the terrible Germans, but their leader brought 
back their courage by a martial speech, and as 
his conference with Ariovistus did not persuade 
the latter to return across the Rhine, he broke 
this off summarily, attacked the Germans, and 
drove them across the Rhine in disorder. Ninety 
thousand German dead were left upon the field, 
and Ariovistus and his two wives were either killed 
or drowned. 

The Gallic tribes were thus freed from the 
German menace, but passed under Roman domi- 
nation, and for more than four hundred years 
Alsace was part of the Roman Empire. We do 
not find there many Roman buildings, but temple 
foundations, roads, and forts have been located 
in considerable numbers, and the land was well 
settled and prosperous under the Roman rule. 
The Germans still coveted it, and their attempts 
to cross the Rhine as the Empire became weaker 



Introduction xiii 



were continuous. In the third century at least 
seven invasions in force were repelled. In 353-4 
the barriers fell, and the German flood swept over 
Alsace, no less than forty-five towns having been 
destroyed. In 357 they were driven out, but in 
367 the Rhine was frozen and the Germans came 
across on the ice. Each time they entered it be- 
came harder to drive them out, and when in 403 
Honorius withdrew the Roman Legions to fight 
the Vandals in Italy, this was the beginning of the 
end. In 406 the Vandals and the Alans com- 
pletely overran Alsace, and in twelve months 
every trace of the Roman civilization had been 
completely destroyed. The next year came the 
Burgundians, and after them the Huns, and until 
these latter were defeated at Chalons in 451, 
and Attila was driven across the Rhine for the 
last time, Alsace remained a waste. 

The Celtic population of Alsace was never en- 
tirely dispossessed or enslaved. Here as else- 
where, they abandoned the plains and retreated 
to the fastnesses of the high valleys and the moun- 
tain tops. In the following centuries they grad- 
ually came down again and mingled with the 
German tribes. The names, both personal and 
place, became Teutonic, but the population, as is 
evident by the contents of graves and especially 
the characteristics of the skulls, remained Celtic 



xiv Introduction 



in character, and this strain is strongly marked 
in the population to the present time. The three 
elements, Celtic, Frankish, and Teutonic, have 
lived continuously in Alsace, and this tripartite 
character of the population explains the medieval 
proverb : 

Drey Schlosser auff einem Berge, 
Drey Kirchen auff einem Kirchoffe, 
Drey Statte in einem Thai, 
1st das ganze Elsass uberall. 

Three castles on one mountain, 
Three churches in one churchyard, 
Three cities in one valley, 
Such is Alsace everywhere. 

After the defeat of Attila the Frankish rulers 
of Gaul gradually asserted their sovereignty over 
Alsace. In 496 Clovis defeated the Allemanni 
on the Rhine, and in 536 the latter evacuated all 
Gallic territory, although a few, as individuals, re- 
mained in Alsace and became taxpayers. Alsace 
was erected into a dukedom by the Frankish 
sovereigns, and the most famous of these dukes 
was Ettich or Attic as, whose greatest renown is 
due to the well-known legend of his daughter 
Odilie, who was born blind and miraculously cured 



Introduction xv 



by the water of baptism. This miracle led to the 
Christianizing of Alsace. 

We do not hear further of dukes of Alsace, and 
the next landmark in Alsatian history is the Treaty 
of Verdun in 843, by which the grandsons of 
Charlemagne divided his empire. Charles the 
Bald received France, Louis the German the 
territory from the Rhine to the 111, and Lothaire, 
the eldest, became emperor and received Lotha- 
ringia, the middle region extending from Lorraine 
to Italy and including Alsace. In 867 Lothaire's 
son, Lothaire II, made his natural son Hugh Duke 
of Alsace, but the Treaty of Mersen in 870, which 
deprived Lothaire II of all of his territory north 
of the Alps, turned Alsace over to Louis the 
German. When the latter died in 876, Hugh 
again assumed his dukedom, but Charles the Fat 
blinded and imprisoned him and became ruler of 
France, Germany, and Italy. 

It is interesting to note that Germany has 
counted the year 843 as her national birthday, 
and in 1843 the millennium of the German empire 
was celebrated. This empire ended in 1806. It 
is amusing to note that Alsace was not a part of 
it either at its beginning or its end. 

What was the attitude of this bit of territory 
toward the sovereigns of Germany during the 
Middle Ages? It was that of feudal allegiance. 



xvi Introduction 



The idea of national sovereignty existed in no 
man's mind. The man of strength among the 
Gallic and German tribes became a leader because 
of his personal prowess, and acquired possessions 
by personal valor as the spoils of war. He gath- 
ered about him followers whose homes and lands 
he protected by his might, and who gradually 
became bound to render him service in war. Thus 
arose the feudal system, and as the peasant swore 
allegiance and gave military support to the knight 
or petty lord who protected his home, this knight 
in turn gave allegiance and owed military service 
to a baron, whose territory comprised the estates 
of several or many knights. The baron in turn 
was feudally dependent on another, sometimes 
the king direct, sometimes a count or duke, and 
thus step by step the feudal structure was built 
up. 

The theory was that the oath of homage was 
inviolable and the feudal obligation permanent. 
This obligation, however, was mutual ; the vassal 
owed allegiance, but the suzerain was bound to 
furnish protection, and if this was not given the 
vassal could theoretically and often did prac- 
tically renounce his allegiance, and transfer it to 
another overlord better able to fulfill his feudal 
duties. The question of allegiance in border lands 
was not always easy to solve, and the nobles of 



Introduction xvii 



Alsace sometimes gave allegiance to French over- 
lords and sometimes to German. In fact, many 
a lord of the marches was a vassal of the French 
king and a member of the Circle of the Empire. 
Territories as far south as Provence remained fiefs 
of the Holy Roman Empire (which as Bryce says, 
"was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire") 
until late in the Middle Ages. 

We are thus justified in considering that the 
tie which bound Alsace to any German sovereign 
for many centuries was wholly a personal one, and 
in no sense national, so when Charles the Simple 
of France acquired Alsace and Lorraine in 911, 
and when he was deposed in 923 and Henry the 
Fowler, the German Emperor, took possession, 
the people of Alsace knew only of the change in a 
remote overlord, and were probably hardly con- 
scious of any difference in their condition, or in 
the rights and duties which were the rule of their 
existence. 

During the eleventh century the dukedom of 
Alsace passed to the house of Hohenstauffen, of 
which it remained an appanage until the last of 
that line, the ill-fated Conradin, died on the scaffold 
at Naples in 1268. In 1168 Werner of Hapsburg 
became the first landgrave of the Sundgau, the 
more southerly of the two gaus or regions into 
which Alsace was divided. This race of Haps- 



XV111 



burg, a violent and masterful strain, first rose to 
historical note in the eleventh century, when a 
wild hunter named Hadbod, said to be a descendant 
of Duke Ettich, built a robber castle in a wild and 
picturesque spot on the river Aar. It is said that 
he found this fastness while hunting by following 
a hawk (habicht in German), whi h led him to a 
wild and unknown region. Hence he named his 
castle Habichtsburg, which became corrupted to 
Habsburg or Hapsburg. 

From the time when Werner became the Land- 
grave of Sundgau, the Hapsburgs retained posses- 
sion of this territory, and their right, at first that of 
appointment, soon became hereditary, for the 
German emperors were in no position to assert 
claims of proprietorship in such a remote region of 
the Empire. The Hapsburgs themselves were not 
able to hold the whole land for their own. The 
Nordgau was dependent on the See of Strasburg, 
and the cities of Alsace acquired wealth, asserted 
their independence of any overlord, and became 
free cities of the Empire. By 1475 the Decapolis, 
or League of Ten Cities, although governed by a 
hereditary prefect of the Hapsburg clan, were all 
members of the Empire in their own right, with 
an appeal to the Diet. Mulhouse did not even 
submit to a prefect. Strasburg was the dominant 
see of the Nordgau, and its archbishop was the 



Introduction xix 



feudal overlord of numerous abbeys, lordships and 
villages throughout northern Alsace, the city it- 
self very early becoming a free city of the Empire. 
In July, 1205, it became an " immediate" city of 
the Empire. In 1219 it obtained a new charter, 
still more favorable, and in 1482, by the famous 
document known as the Schworbrief, it became 
an absolutely free republic, subject to no domina- 
tion or taxation of any sort from outside sources. 
Its burghers annually renewed their oath of al- 
legiance to their own council, and so solid was the 
foundation of their liberty that even that im- 
perious despot, Louis XIV, did not attempt to 
infringe upon their rights and independence. 

By the latter half of the fifteenth century, though 
the Emperor was theoretically freely elected, the 
Empire had become almost Hapsburg, and the 
cadet branch of this house, in the person of 
the Archduke Sigismund, owned Tyrol as well as 
the Landgraviate of the Sundgau, the County of 
Ferrette and other Alsatian possessions. Sigis- 
mund claimed also territorial rights in Switzer- 
land, and as a result was constantly at war with 
the hardy mountaineers. He finally was so hard 
pressed by the Swiss that he decided to buy peace 
from them, and offered to sell his Alsatian pos- 
sessions to Louis XI of France. This monarch 
refused to buy, so he then turned to Charles the 



xx Introduction 



Bold of Burgundy, who had a great ambition to 
unite his provinces in the Netherlands with the 
County and Duchy of Burgundy, and thus re- 
vive the Middle Kingdom of Lothaire. By the 
Treaty of Saint Omer, signed May 9, 1460, 
Charles bought from Sigismund his seigniorial 
rights in the Landgraviate of Alsace, the County 
of Ferrette, and certain Rhine towns. For this 
he paid ten thousand florins on the spot, and 
seventy thousand more to be delivered before 
September 24. Sigismund reserved the right of 
redemption on condition that he should repay 
at Besangon the whole sum at one time, plus any 
outlay made by Charles. Knowing the impe- 
cunious character of Sigismund, the Burgundian 
sovereign thought he was safe in assuming that 
the claim would never be paid off. By this trans- 
action Charles became the sovereign of Alsace 
and a landgrave of the Empire, with the right to 
a seat in its Diet, even though he was a peer of 
France. This right he neither exercised nor 
desired, but proceeded to appoint commissioners 
to investigate exactly what he had bought. Their 
report showed a confusion of rights, charters, 
mortgages, and other obligations of title, so in- 
volved and intricate that human ingenuity would 
despair of ever disentangling the complication. 
As a matter of fact, the tangle was never straight- 



Introduction xxi 



ened out until the French Revolution summarily 
ended all feudal claims and privileges. 

Sigismund shortly repented of his bargain, and 
with the help of his friends in the Empire raised 
enough money, and offered the stipulated repay- 
ment in a single sum. Charles refused to receive 
it, and the money was apparently never returned 
to Burgundy. His ambitious project neverthe- 
less died. He sent into Alsace a "landvogt" who 
tried to reduce the free city of Mulhouse to the 
state of a vassal of Burgundy. The Mulhousians 
responded by placing him on trial for life and 
executing him. The troops of Charles came into 
conflict with the Swiss, were defeated and almost 
exterminated, and Charles himself lost his life 
on the bloody field of Nancy. Then Sundgau 
and Ferrette again became Austrian, with the 
tangle of debts and mortgages still unraveled. 

During the sixteenth century Alsace was dev- 
astated by the Peasants' War and Protestant 
risings. The Mass at Strasburg was peaceably 
abolished by the vote of the burghers on Febru- 
ary 20, 1529. The process was not so peaceable 
in the territories of the Hapsburgs, and there 
was much persecution. The struggle continued 
throughout the century, and until the Thirty 
Years War, during which Alsace was overrun and 
harassed by Swedes, Austrians, and French. The 



xxii Introduction 



cities were taken and retaken, one having been 
sacked ten times. After the death of Gustavus 
Adolphus, Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, who took 
command of the Protestant forces at Liitzen, signed 
an alliance with Catholic France, in the person 
of Cardinal Richelieu. He dreamed of founding 
an Alsatian kingdom, under imperial sovereignty, 
but died at the age of thirty-five in 1639, and his 
troops passed into the hands of Richelieu, under 
a stipulation that the Protestant religion was to be 
freely exercised and the garrison to be half French 
and half German. With France thus in possession, 
the Peace of Westphalia transferred Alsace to 
French sovereignty, and Gaul secured its natural 
frontier, the Rhine. The Holy Roman Empire 
was only a loose federation. It was not German, 
for it at various times comprised territory in the 
Low Countries, France, Austria, Switzerland, and 
Italy, as well as Germany. The Peace of West- 
phalia broke the last nominal link which bound 
the empire as a whole to Rome. It was after- 
ward only an association of German states, com- 
prising no less than 343 political units. 

What did the Treaty of Munster provide in 
regard to Alsace, and was this forcibly reft from the 
German Empire ? As far as Alsace itself was con- 
cerned, it was, with the exception of the republics 
of Strasburg and Mulhouse, a willing party to the 



Introduction xxiii 



treaty. Despite the opposition of the Emperor 
Ferdinand, Doctor Mark Otto sat as the Alsatian 
envoy in the negotiations and signed the conven- 
tions for Alsace. The treaty itself was formal 
and definite. Article 75 provided as follows : 
"The Emperor, in his own behalf and in that of 
the most serene House of Austria, cedes the rights, 
domains, possessions, and jurisdictions which 
hitherto belonged to him, to the Empire, and to 
the House of Austria, in the city of Breisach, the 
landgraviates of Upper and Lower Alsace, the 
Sundgau, the prefecture general of the ten im- 
perial cities situated in Alsace . . . and all the 
countries and other rights of whatever nature, 
which are comprised within the prefecture, — by 
transferring all and each to the very Christian 
King and to the realm of France." Article 76 
provided "that the cession was made for all time, 
without reservation, with plenary jurisdiction and 
superiority and sovereignty, forever ... so that 
no Emperor and no prince of the House of Austria 
could or ought ever at any time to make pretentions 
to, or usurp any right and puissance over the said 
lands." 

Article 79 provided "that the Emperor, the 
Empire, and the Archduke Ferdinand Charles 
should discharge all officials in the ceded territory 
from their oaths of fealty toward themselves." 



xxiv Introduction 



The intent of this article was to release all of 
Alsace to France, but the complexity of tenure 
of suzerainty and of property rights was not fully 
realized. So far the terms of the treaty were clear 
enough, but article 89 introduced a doubt. By 
this it was provided that the subordinate units in 
Alsace were still "immediate of the Holy Roman 
Empire, and that the King of France should have 
no royal supremacy over them, and should suc- 
ceed only to the rights of the archduke." This 
contradicts the previous articles, but is itself im- 
mediately weakened by a further declaration that 
this provision shall be "no prejudice of sovereign 
rights previously accorded." 

The best explanation of these contradictions is 
that each party succeeded in inserting provisions 
to save its pride, and that each obtained in words 
what he held out for, though France received the 
territory in fact, and the Archduke was to receive 
as compensation the sum of three million livres 
tournois, which would be about three-quarters as 
much in livres parisis, or about $500,000 of our 
money. It has been claimed by German his- 
torians that this payment was never made, and 
that this rendered the cession null and void. The 
facts are that the Treaty of the Pyrenees, in 1659, 
again stipulated that this sum should be paid 
within three years, in five installments, to the 



Introduction xxv 



Archduke Ferdinand Charles. He died Decem- 
ber 30, 1662, without having received it, and it 
was paid to his brother and heir, the Archduke 
Sigismund Francis, in December, 1663, and the 
receipt still exists in the national archives of 
France. 

Louis XIV never claimed any rights as a member 
of the German empire which he might have ac- 
quired under the Treaty of Munster, but pro- 
ceeded to extend French sovereignty over Alsace 
as rapidly as seemed feasible. At first the cus- 
toms frontier ran between Alsace and France, 
and there was resistance in some quarters, and 
even occasionally a resort to arms, before the 
Alsatian towns recognized French sovereignty. 
Even after this had been formally accepted, the 
towns of the Decapolis still sent representatives 
to the Imperial Diet. Mulhouse had joined the 
Swiss League, and was neither French nor Im- 
perial, and Strasburg still remained autonomous. 
The French on the whole, however, pursued a con- 
ciliatory policy without putting innovations in 
force against the will of the people, and each of 
the wars of Louis XIV left the position of France 
in Alsace a little firmer. 

In 1679 the Peace of Nimwegen was signed, and 
by this the Emperor formally turned over to 
France the possession of Wissembourg and Landau, 



xxvi Introduction 



while Louis XIV retained possession of the other 
cities of the Decapolis, which had been garrisoned 
by France. All the cities then took the oath of 
allegiance to the King of France, and the Sovereign 
Council of Alsace was formed as a local parliament. 

The king was anxious to extend his influence 
over Strasburg, because of its important military 
situation guarding the Rhine. A treaty was 
executed, and Louis took possession of the city 
in 1681. The terms of the treaty provided that 
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes should not 
be valid for Strasburg, but nevertheless, the 
Catholic influence remained strong in the city. 
The king entered the city with great pomp on 
October 23, and thereafter there was no question 
of imperial influence in the capital of Alsace. At 
the Peace of Ryswick in 1695, Strasburg was 
formally and perpetually joined to the French 
crown. 

After this long series of treaties it might be 
assumed that Alsace had become completely 
French, but the feudal ties of obligation were so 
complex and difficult of abolition, that it was an 
almost impossible task to destroy theoretical 
imperial sovereignty, even though it practically 
did not exist. In 1648 France acquired from the 
House of Hapsburg 284 communities; in 1679 
from the Empire 313 ; in the next sixteen years 




PORTRAIT OF LOUIS XIV 



Introduction xxvii 



202. But even after 1695 there were almost fifty 
feudal units which still owed suzerainty to German 
overlords. Another century was required for the 
extinction of these rights, and it required no less 
a catastrophe than the French Revolution to 
abolish feudalism. In February, 1790, various 
princes, orders, and knights of the Holy Roman 
Empire protested to the French government 
against the confiscation of their properties or the 
abolition of their feudal rights. In October of 
the same year the Assembly decided to uphold 
French sovereignty, and to ask the king to pay 
suitable indemnity. This the princes declined, 
and took their grievances to the Imperial Diet. 
Futile effort ! The march of events was inex- 
orable. First Louis XIV, and then the Empire 
itself, disappeared. Alsace remained wholly 
French, and the owners of the feudal rights re- 
ceived no compensation. Another treaty, that 
of Bale, in 1795, between France and Prussia, 
recognized the facts, and gave France a free hand 
on the left bank of the Rhine, a condition which 
was not altered by the Congress of Vienna, but 
which remained undisputed until 1870. 

This short survey of the history of Alsace re- 
veals that Alsace as a border land has passed from 
owner to owner, with little regard to the rights 
of the people, and it is not surprising under these 



xxviii Introduction 



conditions that during a great part of its history 
no such thing as national sentiment did or could 
exist. The people of Alsace looked to their im- 
mediate superiors for help and protection, and 
were more or less indifferent to the dynasties which 
theoretically ruled them. During the period when 
the unified nations of today were reaching their 
modern form, the predominant influence in Alsace 
was French. It was never harsh or arbitrary. 
There was never any attempt to force customs, 
laws, or language on an unwilling people. Con- 
sequently German sentiment and German speech 
almost disappeared from the provinces, and the 
patois of the common people, though basically 
Teutonic, became almost incomprehensible to 
educated Germans. There is nothing which unifies 
national sentiment like the prosecution of a pro- 
tracted and successful war, and the Napoleonic 
Wars delivered Alsace to France in heart and soul. 
In spite, therefore, of the false arguments which 
have been set up by German writers in the last 
half century as to the historic bonds uniting 
Alsace with Germany, the taking of Alsace in 
1870 was a purely selfish proceeding, designed 
for the military and economic aggrandizement of, 
primarily, Prussia, and secondarily, . the German 
Empire, and the Prussian authors of the treaty 
of peace had neither illusions nor scruples on the 




PORTRAIT OF HENRY II 



Introduction xxix 



point that Alsace was French, and was forcibly 
and without moral justification annexed to Ger- 
many. 

Of the French province of Lorraine but a small 
fraction was taken by Germany. Lorraine was 
essentially French throughout the Middle Ages, 
though portions of it at various times owed al- 
legiance to the Empire, but the bishoprics of Metz, 
Toul, and Verdun were taken by Henry II of 
France from Charles III, Duke of Lorraine, a 
minor, in 1552, without bloodshed, and were 
French thereafter, both de facto, and from 1559, 
when no reference was made to them in the Treaty 
of Cateau Cambresis, dejure. Germany took part 
of the province in 1870 for its economic value, and 
would have taken more had she then realized the 
full value of the refractory iron ores of the Briey 
Basin. 

What happened to Alsace during the war ? We 
all know that the French made a considerable 
advance into Alsace at the beginning of the war 
in 1914, even occupying Mulhouse, but Germany's 
plunge through Belgium shortly nullified this ad- 
vance, and the French lines were withdrawn to 
defensible positions on the slopes of the Vosges, 
which were retained with little change in spite of 
the periods of sanguinary fighting, especially about 



xxx Introduction 



Hartmannsweilerkopf, the dominating crest of 
the Vosges, until practically the close of the war. 
A certain number of Alsatian communes were ad- 
ministered by the French throughout the war; 
the greater portion remained within the German 
lines. The front on the whole passed through 
mountainous territory, and with the exception of 
the town of Thann, which was very heavily bom- 
barded and almost half destroyed, the Alsatian 
settlements suffered very little devastation, as 
compared with wide districts of northern France. 

Whatever may have been the opinion, professed 
or real, of German writers as to the Germanization 
of Alsace, the German military authorities were 
under no illusions as to their task at the beginning 
of the war. They knew that Alsace was French 
at heart, that its men would not willingly serve in 
the German armies, that its women, children, and 
old men ardently desired French victory. So from 
the very beginning of the war, they treated it as 
if it were still French and not German territory. 

There is abundant and incontrovertible testi- 
mony that numerous units of the German army, 
before entering Alsace-Lorraine, were formally 
notified by their commanding officers that they 
were entering hostile territory, and that it would 
be necessary for them to act accordingly. A 
lawyer of Colmar, Paul Albert Helmer, has pub- 



Introduction xxxi 



lished much information in regard to this, and 
even his voluminous record is probably incom- 
plete. 

"Load your rifles/' said Captain Fischer, of the 
Fortieth Territorial Infantry, "we are now in the 
enemy's territory (Hier sind wir in Feindesland) . " 

"Be prudent, " advised one of the lieutenants 
of the same regiment, "you are now in the enemy's 
country. If, in your billets, the inhabitants give 
you anything to drink, make them drink first." 

"In case you hear a Lorrainer speak French," 
said Feldwebel Barkentien of the Second Company 
of the Sanitary Service of the XXIst Corps, 
"hang him by the feet till he dies miserably 
(Dass er langsam krepiert). We are here, gen- 
erally speaking, in the enemy's country, for these 
'Shangels' (Lorrainers) are more to be feared 
than our enemies." 

The German soldiers were only too eager to 
obey orders which so thoroughly satisfied their 
instinctive brutality. They not only made requi- 
sitions arbitrarily and extortionately, but they 
robbed, burned, and murdered on the flimsiest 
pretext, consoling their consciences by repeating 
among themselves, "Here we are in the enemy's 
country." 



The Germans had no intention of ever allowing 



xxxii Introduction 



the French to recover a prosperous land if the 
fortune of war should restore to them Alsace. 
The Kaiser said, "If ever we give Alsace-Lorraine 
back, we will return it bald." Happily circum- 
stances beyond the boaster's control forbade the 
execution of this threat. But the German troops 
were so exasperated at being obliged to retreat 
during the early French advance, that they im- 
mediately began to show what their Emperor had 
in mind when he made this assertion. They 
burned many farms, among them that of a pe sant 

whose name was recorded only as B in the 

account written while the Germans were still 
in control. When the farmhouse was in flames 

they tied B to a tree trunk and shot him. 

His daughter, a girl of fifteen, was wantonly mur- 
dered by an officer, who passed his sword through 
her body. They took with them a boy of fourteen, 
and did not give him time to put on his shoes. 
His felt slippers were soon worn out, and when 
his feet began to bleed he begged his captors to 
let him rest. Instead they stood him against a 
tree and shot him, leaving his body for the peasants 
to find and bury. The mother went insane, there 
remaining only a babe in arms of her happy family. 
When the Germans returned to the villages which 
the French had temporarily occupied, they wreaked 
their vengeance on all the inhabitants who were 



Introduction xxxiii 



reported by tale-bearing compatriots to have re- 
ceived the French with hospitality. An old man 
who was reported to have carried a written message 
for a French officer was forced to dig a grave and 
lie down in it to be shot. In a village where the 
French had bought provisions, they ordered the 
inhabitants to deliver without compensation every- 
thing that was left, and they shot an old man for 
failing to surrender four eggs. 

Bourtzwiller, near Mulhouse, was occupied by 
the French for a short time, a fact which so ex- 
asperated the Germans that when they returned 
they burned fifty-six houses. As further punish- 
ment, they shot in the presence of their families, 
Benjamin Schott, the father of five children, and 
whose wife was then pregnant, Schott's seventeen- 
year-old son, and one of his farm hands ; Ignace 
Nieck, and his son Paul; Jean Baptiste Biehler, 
an octogenarian, and Fritsch Kuneyel. They also 
arrested, beat, bound, and carried off half naked 
to Mulhouse, seventy-eight of the inhabitants. 
Note the names of these persons, and wonder 
whether their sympathies were French or German. 

Dalheim, near Chateau-Salins, received even 
worse treatment. Forty houses and a church were 
burned, with their contents, including the bed- 
ridden ex-mayor, Louis Sommer, and the live 
stock. The troops shot the half-crazed animals 



xxxiv Introduction 



which were able to escape from the burning build- 
ings. They murdered several of the inhabitants, 
including children and old men. Sixty-five able- 
bodied males were assembled by means of kicks 
and blows from the butts of rifles, were marched 
to Morhange, and were obliged to lie down, with 
their faces in the mud, for more than twelve hours. 
If one of these poor devils, half suffocated, raised 
his head to get a breath of fresh air, a heavy blow 
on the skull from a gunstock drove it back into 
place. Two died, and one lies paralyzed. The 
remainder were sent to Deux-Ponts, where they 
were kept in prison for six weeks, living on bread 
and water, and sleeping on rotten straw. A few 
more died ; then part were liberated and the rest 
transferred to the Palatinate, where they were 
imprisoned sixteen months longer. After the 
men of Dalheim were removed, the women and 
children were stripped naked, and turned over to 
the mercy of the German soldiers, who hunted their 
game through the vineyards all night. 

The German official documents relating to these 
two affairs were captured in the town hall at 
Mulhouse by the lawyer Helmer, when the French 
occupied the city for the second time. 

The attitude of the Alsatians in regard to mili- 
tary service in the German army was what might 
have been expected from M. Hallays' account of 



Introduction xxxv 



their feelings before the war. Tens of thousands 
escaped before they were summoned ; others de- 
serted before being sent to the front, and others 
would probably have done so had they not been 
promised (often falsely), that they would not be 
required to serve against the French. 

In a single day eighty territorials from the 
regions surrounding Strasburg were arraigned be- 
fore a special military court in that city for de- 
sertion and treason. On a single day the public 
prosecutor of Mulhouse ordered the arrest of 
seven hundred and seventy-three men of a single 
class, that of 1892, to answer the charge of deser- 
tion, and also confiscated the property of a number 
of other men charged with desertion and treason. 
Hundreds, yes thousands, of other cases are re- 
ported in German papers which were collected 
by the French military authorities; all classes, 
all trades, and all professions are represented 
in these lists, a veritable Alsatian Roll of Honor, 
which by themselves are sufficient to prove the 
persistence of French sentiment after half a century 
of German occupation. 

The Alsatians who were sent to the front against 
the French often refused to fire on men whom they 
regarded as their brothers in blood, and of course 
this infraction of German discipline cost them their 
lives. The Abbe Wetterle has told of a young 



xxxvi Introduction 



Alsatian from Colmar who was incorporated in a 
Saxon regiment. During the battle of the Marne 
his lieutenant observed that he was firing too low. 
Though warned, he persisted. "Ah! I under- 
stand," cried the officer, "you Alsatian dogs are 
all traitors. It is high time to make an example." 
He emptied his revolver into the sergeant's brain, 
and said to his men, "This is what happens to the 
friends of the French." Soon after the boy's 
father received this letter : 

"Monsieur, your son died because of his love 
for France. Seriously wounded by an officer who 
accused him of sparing the French opposite us, 
he survived only a few hours. It was in my arms 
he breathed his last, after the consolations of re- 
ligion. Before closing his eyes, he charged me 
with his mission. 'Please write my father,' he 
said, 'that I was faithful to my vow. Not a drop 
of French blood has stained my hands, and I have 
the joy, before dying, of seeing the French army 
rebound.' He paused an instant, a smile ap- 
peared on his lips and, gathering together all his 
strength, he cried, 'Vive la France!'" 

Thus the Alsatian soldiers were a dead weight 
in the German armies, at least on the western 
front. Even if they did not desert in the face of 
the enemy, knowing that they had not one chance 
in ten of getting across No Man's Land alive, 



Introduction xxxvii 



and that they were abandoning wives and children, 
fathers and mothers, to the brutal German venge- 
ance, they were regarded by the Germans as po- 
tential traitors. Numerous official orders for- 
bidding their employment in responsible positions, 
either in the line or the rear, sufficiently prove 
where their sympathies were. 

The Alsatian civilians who remained at home 
were no less suspected and oppressed by the 
Germans than those in the zone of warfare and 
in the army. Brutality, espionage, convictions 
on false or insufficient evidence, imprisonment, 
confiscation, and death were everyday affairs. 
The least suspicion of French sentiment involved 
persecution. Ten years of hard labor for waving 
a white handkerchief at the sight of a distant 
French patrol; four months for singing the 
Marseillaise ; and imprisonment for selling goods 
bearing French labels, even though these were 
furnished by German manufacturers, are only 
samples of thousands of punishments imposed 
by the Germans. Even the women were pun- 
ished for singing French songs, for writing letters 
to their friends in France, and for throwing kisses 
to French prisoners. 

"If the 'schwobs' are victorious/ ' said Valerie 
Fichter, saleswoman in a Mulhouse store, "their 
necks will stretch so with pride that they will be 



xxxviii Introduction 



able to look into the gutters of the houses." This 
pleasantry cost her a number of months in prison. 

Bismarck, in 1871, was asked how he would 
denationalize Alsace. He said, "We will take 
the Alsatian children and educate them in the 
German schools; we will take their young men 
and submit them to the discipline of our great 
German army." The result was exactly the 
opposite of what he had anticipated. Neither 
school nor barrack could transform a real Alsatian 
into a German. We have seen what happened 
to those who went into the army. The school 
children, as well as the soldiers, were haled before 
the courts-martial because of their pro-French 
or anti-German sentiments. Their youth would 
have given a reasonable judge warrant for leniency, 
but even the irresponsibility of a child did not 
prevent him from receiving pitiless punishment. 
Four months of prison for schoolboy tricks; a 
year in jail for singing the "Marseillaise" ; a fatal 
bayonet stab for crying "Vive la France," were 
some of the punishments. And a boy, Th6ophile 
Jaegly, was executed for high treason because he 
declared that his village was free from French 
soldiers, although he knew perfectly well that a 
French detachment was ambushed there. 

The Imperial military authorities published in 
the newspapers the proceedings of the courts- 



Introduction xxxix 



martial in Alsace, with the usual German inability 
to understand the psychology of a free and noble 
race. They expected thus to intimidate and 
terrorize the subject population. Eventually they 
perceived that this publicity was having exactly 
the opposite effect upon the Alsatians, and that 
they were giving their own case away by proving 
that Alsace was not as thoroughly German as 
they had always asserted. The publication was 
discontinued and the punishments continued to 
be inflicted in secrecy. Too late, the records 
stand ! 

******* 

A bill has been introduced into the French 
Chamber of Deputies proposing the institution 
of a Medal of French Fidelity, "To be bestowed 
upon every Alsatian or Lorrainer, who, between 
1870 and 1918, was fined, imprisoned or exiled, 
for words or deeds denoting attachment to 
France." It is also proposed that the name of 
every inhabitant of these provinces who was 
executed by the Germans shall be placed upon 
the Roll of Honor of the French army, and that 
his family shall be given the pension to which he 
would have been entitled if he had been a French 
citizen and had died at the front. 

It is but justice. 
******* 



xl Introduction 



After this what question can there be of a 
plebiscite ? 

The Peace Conference will find none ; the 
question will not be raised. Alsace has spoken, 
not only by the voice of its representatives, but 
louder yet by the voice of the people themselves. 
The date was November 22, eleven days after the 
armistice was signed, the day when Strasburg 
saw her hopes fulfilled, her waiting of half a century 
rewarded. Let an eye-witness, Lieutenant Emory 
Pottle, writing in the New York Times, tell of it. 

" There is but one splendor in war. Out of all 
the reek and sweat and blood and horror and hell 
of it there is but one surpassing, tragically beau- 
tiful instant. The instant of triumph. Stras- 
burg awaited the entry of the French. And the 
French awaited — what did they not await ! 
Struggle ended, victory accomplished, sacrifice 
consecrated, they awaited fulfillment. After fifty 
bitter years the French were coming back, the 
conquerors, to their own, to Alsace. . . . 

"At 9.30, over all the rush and surge and shout 
of innumerable masses, there rang a high, clear, 
brazen fanfare. Trumpets at the gate of entry! 
They're here I The French I 

" Down the dense expectant lanes of people gone 
mad with enthusiasm, with joy, with hope come 
true, they rode, the French, in the fine panoply 



Introduction xli 



of victory. Gouraud, the beloved General 
Gouraud five times wounded, his right arm gone, 
at their head ; Gouraud who became a soldier in 
his youth because of an Alsace and Lorraine lost ; 
Gouraud who is a beautiful, tattered, consecrated, 
victorious, worshiped battle-flag of France. Be- 
hind him his soldiers — his enfants, he calls them — 
his Moroccans, his poilus, his rugged old terri- 
torials. Faded khaki, faded blue, stained with 
war and beautiful with triumph. Heads high, 
eyes shining through tears, faces gentle and kind 
and childlike. The famous soldiers of France. 

"Regiment on regiment they come on with the 
rattle and rumble of artillery, with the almost 
unbearable crash and cry and flaunt of martial 
music — Sambre et Meuse, and over their heads 
the hum and whir of the airplanes. The human 
hedges brilliant with banners broke at sight of 
them. The men and women and children who 
but a day or two ago had seen with unspeakable 
relief the sullen, shamed lines of Germans defile 
through these very streets to cross, God grant 
forever, their cherished Rhine, threw themselves 
upon their liberators ; arm in arm girls marched 
on deliriously with the troopers; old women 
kissed their hands, their cheeks; men with sobs 
in their throats threw their arms about them as 
might fathers embrace sons come home. Stras- 



xlii Introduction 



burg was abloom with flung flowers ; the bright 
morning was a wonderful wind-tossed flag; the 
world a sudden heart-breaking glory. 

" The French had come . . . ! 

"They march on, then, the French, to the statue 
of Kleber in the Place Kleber. Every city has its 
traditional center. Strasburg's is there. A fine 
free space with a great bronze of Napoleon's Gen- 
eral Kleber in its heart (Kleber was tolerated here 
by the Germans who chose, as they so insolently 
choose with many things, to call him one of them) , 
and set about with charming buildings, old Alsa- 
tian, the grace of Louis Quinze in their wall lines 
and sharp-pitched roofs. Here General Gouraud 
halted. There was an instant of rich silence as the 
soldier raised his sword to the salute. Then cheers, 
and cheers, and cheers ! It was the shout of flood- 
tide, of seas washing up to immemorial heights. A 
poem of Browning's — I have forgotten the flow of 
the lines — comes into my mind as I write. Some- 
thing of roses all the way and the air a mist of 
swaying bells. It was like that, Strasburg. The 
air was a mist of bells and fine flags, and shouts 
and tears and smiles and hearts long repressed at 
last open. Gouraud rode away, but Strasburg 
danced when he had gone at the foot of Kleber's 
statue, and Kleber in martial bronze, wreathed 
and flowered, seemed to live again and smile. 



Introduction xliii 



"How Strasburg danced and cheered at every 
turn. We dined and lunched with unknown hosts, 
suddenly become friends. We were kissed and 
hugged by old and young. The dignified streets 
broke into song. The ' Marseillaise ' ! Every- 
where the ' Marseillaise.' Once they had the 
tune it was enough. The words seemed to come 
instinctively. Le jour de gloire est arrive! Lads 
chirped it, whistled it. Girls screamed it at top- 
lung. Old men, old women shouted it piously. 
The day of glory had arrived at last. There stands 
in the heart of Strasburg an old unassuming house 
that bears a garlanded word of recall to those who 
passing glance above its door : 'La "Marseillaise" 
jut chantee pour la premiere fois dans cette maison 
par Rouget de VIsle, le 25 Avril, 1792.' Small 
wonder, then, that the immortal air comes famil- 
iarly and full from the Strasburgers' throats in 
the city where first it was sung, 

'Qu'un sang impur 
Abreuve nos sillons.' . . . 

" The wild, dancing, wonderful day turned into 
night. Rosy globes of paper lanterns shone' in 
windows. Yellow light, rich and smiling, flooded 
over the charming, sauntering crowds, lit the 
forests of beautiful flags. And all night long 



xliv Introduction 



Strasburg sang the ' Marseillaise.' Sang it? Was 
it, so it seemed to me." ■ 

* ***** * 

It is over. 

The waiting, the griefs, the disappointed hopes, 
broken lives, destroyed families, ruined enter- 
prises, decaying towns and cities, all have been 
suffered ; the terrors, the tortures, the sacrifices 
of war have been gone through; the time of re- 
union has come. Alsace, Lorraine, are wrecked 
and bleeding ; France has suffered from the hor- 
rors of war as no nation has suffered in modern 
times, but the Lost Provinces are restored. The 
Valley of the Sarre also comes back to France, 
for half a generation at least, forever if the pleb- 
iscite shall then decide it so. The left bank of 
the Rhine is to be neutral and occupied, forever 
a bulwark against new German invasion. Here 
is some balm for French wounds. Let us hope 
that France and Alsace may henceforth receive 
naught from the east but peace ! 

Frank Roy Fraprie. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

In my trips across Alsace I had stopped only for a 
passing glance at the cathedral of Strasburg and 
the museum of Colmar. A species of apprehension 
had always prevented me from making any stay. 
The Germans continually announced that their 
conquest was definitely Germanized, and certain 
French travelers, after a brief sojourn beyond the 
Vosges, brought us the same news. I feared the 
bitter sadness of such a spectacle. It is grievous 
to feel oneself a foreigner in a land which was once 
French, more grievous still to meet as foreigners 
the sons of those who once were Frenchmen. But, 
one day, Les Oberle of M. Rene Bazin brought us 
the assurance that the moral annexation was not 
yet complete, that the Alsatian youth remained 
faithful to the memory of the former fatherland. 
Then I resolved to know Alsace. The Industrial 
Society of Mulhouse gave me the opportunity, by 
inviting me to deliver a lecture before it. Under 
its sponsorship, I found the Alsatians ready to 
guide me and to guard me against the illusions 
and mistakes to which one is exposed in a country 
where everything is complicated and embroiled by 
a diversity of religions, of parties, and of interests. 

Since 1903, I have made several trips in Alsace, 

xlv 



xlvi Author's Preface 

and each time I have published the haphazard 
notes which I made in my journeys. I reproduce 
them today in the form and order in which they 
originally appeared. I could not dream of turn- 
ing them into a description of Alsace : it would 
have presented too many gaps. I have also 
thought that the reader would follow me more 
willingly if I treated him as a traveling companion 
and made him the associate of my emotions and 
of my discoveries. 

I beg the Alsatians who were my guides and 
who became my friends to find here the expression 
of my deep gratitude. They revealed to me the 
treasures of their towns, the charm of their coun- 
trysides, and especially the beauty of the Alsatian 
character. I have written, so to speak, at their 
dictation, and I hope that they will recognize 
themselves in the mirror of my little book. Per- 
haps these Alsatians will find that I have failed 
to mention their most glorious masterpieces, and 
that, worthily to celebrate their province, I 
should have omitted neither the cathedral of 
Strasburg, nor the church of Thann, nor the 
castles whose ruins crown the summits of the 
Vosges. Let them suspend judgment : I will re- 
turn among them. I have emphasized, this time, 
all which, in the Alsace of the past, has seemed 
most suitable to explain that of today. 



Author's Preface xlvii 

A few days ago, on the platform of the railway 
station at Strasburg, a young Alsatian, who with 
charming kindness had volunteered to guide me 
among the men and things of his country, said to 
me at the moment of separation: "If you speak 
of Alsace, the essential point is not to tell what 
we are thinking and what we are doing. It is 
more important to make Frenchmen desire to 
cross the Vosges more often, and to give us the 
joy of their presence among us. Our Alsace is 
admirable, with its great forests, its immense 
horizons, its fruitful countrysides, its beautiful 
churches, its ancient houses, its innumerable 
treasures of art : you have seen them. Why not 
choose it more often for your travels and your 
vacations? In what country will you be better 
received than here?" 

I would like to follow this recommendation. 
Yet I cannot evade the great question, inevitably 
presented to whomsoever shall return from the 
annexed provinces. I will answer it as well as 
I can by relating what I have seen and what I 
have heard in my travels. 



THE 
SPELL OF ALSACE 



MULHOUSE 

THERE are towns which at first sight im- 
part to the passerby the secret of their 
destiny. The aspect of their streets, of 
their houses, of their monuments, the colors with 
which they are painted, the plan on which they are 
laid out, tell clearly the lives, the customs, and the 
souls of the men who built them and of the men who 
inhabit them. But manufacturing cities are more 
close-mouthed. The smoke-wreaths which trail 
across their skies give things a dull and melancholy 
aspect. The necessities of industry, alike in all 
countries, efface the particular characteristics of 
these towns, which, at the first glance, appear 
almost alike. To discover their originality, one 
must go below appearances, question men, and 
consult history. 

Mulhouse is one of the most original cities 
which exist in Europe, original in its temperament, 

1 



2 The Spell of Alsace 

its history, and in the proud and laborious spirit 
of its citizens. All this, however, does not appear 
at first glance to the traveler, who, Baedeker in 
hand, visits Mulhouse between two trains. 

It is a great city, active but sad. Like an im- 
perceptible but incessant rain, the soot of its 
factories drops upon its roofs of dull tiles, upon 
the pavements of its streets, upon the little vege- 
table patches of the workmen's homes, upon the 
magnificent flower-beds which decorate the gar- 
dens of its burghers. 

It is a very ancient city, but one which has pre- 
served few traces of its past : a few towers ; 
several bits of its fourteenth-century ramparts ; 
a few crooked and irregular streets ; a few palaces 
of the eighteenth century, like that beautiful 
Loewenfels house, with such a perfect front, with 
its admirable window gratings. . . . This would 
be all, if something of ancient Mulhouse did not 
still live in the Place de la Reunion. The ca- 
pricious design of this square has been respected. 
The Renaissance Hotel de Ville has been pre- 
served, with its high roof and its charming stair- 
case, clinging to the fagade under a tiled portico. 
A Munich " professor," a man of great knowledge, 
but whose taste was perhaps too Bavarian, has 
restored the exterior frescos. Unfortunately, half 
a century ago, the old church of Saint Etienne, 



Mulhouse 



which stood on one side of the square, was de- 
molished, and in its place has been built a new 
temple, in a terribly massive Gothic style. Even 
today they are destroying old gabled houses to 
replace them by modern buildings. 

To have that vision of the past, without which 
we can comprehend nothing of the present, we 
must enter the Council Hall of the Hotel de Ville. 
It is a low room, embellished with a magnificent 
coffered ceiling. Wide windows open on the 
square and their old stained glass commemorates 
the alliances of Mulhouse with Berne, Bale, and 
Soleure, and later with France. On one of the 
walls are painted the escutcheons of the cantons 
of Switzerland and the arms of the burgomasters 
of the town from 1347 to 1870. On the opposite 
wall are placed the portraits of the last Alsatian 
mayors of Mulhouse : they are all decorated with 
the Legion of Honor. At the far end of the hall, 
the bust of Wilhelm II. On the table, the record 
of the sessions, drawn up in German since 1887. 
(Note 1.) 

These armorial bearings, these images, these 
portraits, these registers, disclose in a short 
epitome the whole history of Mulhouse, a free 
city of the Empire, a Swiss canton, a French city, 
a German city. 

This history is affecting, because, through so 



The Spell of Alsace 



many vicissitudes, Mulhouse has remained faith- 
ful to its love of independence. The town was 
born republican, and never has denied its tradition, 
in good or in evil fortune, in poverty or in wealth. 
Too weak to defend alone its own existence, it has 
never consented to an alliance which might jeop- 
ardize its liberty. 

I cannot relate the whole story of Mulhouse ; a 
few traits, collected from different periods of 
its history, will suffice to define Mulhousian 
character. 

In 1293, Adolph of Nassau, successor of Rudolph 
of Hapsburg, who had declared Mulhouse a free 
city of the Empire, granted the city a charter, in 
which are enumerated all its franchises and all its 
privileges. One of the articles of this charter 
formally guarantees the inviolability of the domi- 
cile : a citizen, even if he is accused of murder, 
may quietly lock himself in his own house and 
answer through the window the questions of the 
judge seated in the street; if he is found guilty, 
he may set his affairs in order and leave the town 
without hindrance, provided, however, that he 
succeeds in escaping the private vengeance of the 
friends or relations of his victim. . . . Such were 
the first institutions of Mulhouse. 

At the end of the sixteenth century Montaigne 
travels to Italy ; he crosses the Vosges and passes 



Mulhouse 



through Mulhouse : a century before, the town 
had concluded a perpetual alliance with the Swiss 
cantons; it has become Protestant, like Bale, its 
neighbor. Montaigne's secretary makes this entry 
in his journal : 

"Mulhouse. — A beautiful little town of 
Switzerland, canton of Bale. M. de Montaigne 
went to see the church ; for they are not Catholics 
here. He found it, as everywhere in this country, 
in good order ; for there has been almost nothing 
changed, save the altars and images which have 
been, but without mutilation. He took an 
infinite pleasure in seeing the liberty and good 
policing of this nation, and in noticing his host of 
the ' Bunch of Grapes' (Note 2) return from the 
Council of the aforesaid town, and from a magnif- 
icent gilded palace, where he had presided, to 
serve his guests at table; and a man without 
following and without authority, who served 
drinks, had led four ensigncies of infantry to the 
service of the King under the Casemir (Jean 
Casimir, son of Louis, Elector and Count Palatine) 
in France, and been a pensioner of the King at 
three hundred crowns a year, for more than twenty 
years. The which lord recited to him at table, 
without ambition or affectation, his present condi- 
tion and his past life : he said, among other 
things, that they find no difficulty, because of 



6 The Spell of Alsace 

their religion, in serving the King, even against 
the Huguenots ; which several others told us also 
on our way; and that at our siege of La Fere 
there were more than fifty from this city; that 
they marry indifferently women of our religion 
before the priest, and do not force them to 
change. . . ." 

Every word should be emphasized, in these few 
lines, which truly paint the Mulhousian of afore- 
time and of today, his love of liberty, as well as 
of good order, his simple manners, " without 
ambition and without affectation, " his horror of 
fanaticism, his taste for tolerance. It is necessary 
to add to these qualities a deep religious sentiment, 
which gives to actions an air of seriousness and to 
words an accent of gravity. 

In 1776, business on a large scale commenced 
to develop at Mulhouse. It was in the following 
terms that four merchants then concluded an 
agreement of association to found a factory of 
calico spinning, weaving, and printing : 

"In the Name of God, Amen, 

"May our beginning, our middle, and our end 
occur in the name of the Creator of all things, 
God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
to whose mercy we recommend ourselves. May 
the Most High bless our enterprises, for his glory, 
in order that they may succeed to our advantage, 



Mulhouse 



according to his holy and wise views for time and 
for eternity. Amen. 

"A friendly association is created between Paul 
Huguenin junior, Jean Mantz, Nicolas Moser and 
Daniel Jelensperger, under the firm name deter- 
mined by drawing by lot, of Huguenin, Mantz et 
Cie., for twenty consecutive years, commencing 
with the grace of God, January 1st, 1777, and end- 
ing January 1st, expected of God, in the year 1797, 
for the exploitation of a factory of printed calicos, 
of a cloth weaveshop, and of a spinning factory, 
and that under the following conditions : 

" 1. When the funds of each partner shall have 
reached 30,000 French livres, he shall not be per- 
mitted to reduce them below this amount. 

"2. The profits, expected of God, shall be di- 
vided into four equal parts, and the capital of each 
partner shall receive a sum equal to that of the 
others. 

"3. On the contrary, and may God prevent! 
if there is a loss in place of a gain, each shall sup- 
port a part of it equal to that of the others. 

"4. At the end of December of each year, an 
exact inventory shall be made, and in the case of 
a possible profit, one shall proceed according to 
§ 2, or for a loss, according to § 3. . . . 

"Each of us must bring all his abilities to the 
enterprise, and, according to his means, apply 



8 The Spell of Alsace 



himself to make it prosper and endeavor to pre- 
sent losses, sustain the other in his affairs, and, 
to this end, communicate to him faithfully that of 
which he is ignorant, and conceal nothing from 
him, of whatever nature it may be." 

Mulhouse, a former republic, remained repub- 
lican when joined to France. Of the persistence 
of this tradition I will cite only one example : at 
the plebiscite of December 20-21, 1851, while 
France ratified the coup oVetat by a vote of 7,439,216 
Yes, against 640,737 No, the vote at Mulhouse 
was 1800 No, against 1683 Yes. 

It seems to me that from these few items we can 
reconstruct the characteristics of a small popu- 
lation, very pious, very laborious, very republican, 
and very much attached to its franchises. 

Gifted with these hereditary qualities, the most 
talented of its manufacturers brought enormous 
prosperity to Mulhouse. 

Up to the middle of the eighteenth century, the 
only industry by which Mulhouse lived was that 
of broadcloth weaving. But, in 1745, J. J. 
Schmaltzer proposed to the merchant Samuel 
Koechlin and to the painter Jean Henri Dollfus 
to associate themselves with him to found at 
Mulhouse an establishment for manufacturing 
printed calicos. In the following year the firm of 



Mulhouse 9 



Koechlin, Schmaltzer et Cie. was founded. This 
was the dawn of the great industry of Mulhouse. 

To protect the production of wool, Louis XIV 
had forbidden the manufacture and sale of cotton 
cloth. England and Prussia had followed this 
example. The principal factories of printed calicos 
had then been established in Switzerland and were 
most frequently managed by French Protestants 
who had exiled themselves in consequence of the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Schmaltzer 
had studied the processes of this manufacture at 
Bied, near Neuchatel, in one of the factories 
started by Jacques de Luze, a Huguenot who had 
emigrated from Saintonge. 

The firm of Koechlin, Schmaltzer et Cie. made 
great profits. Other Mulhousians followed the 
example set by their three compatriots. The 
bankers of Bale furnished the capital. Skilled 
and inventive designers gave a great renown to the 
calicos of Mulhouse. The first printings had been 
made on cloth imported from Switzerland or by 
the Compagnie des Indes, but weave-sheds were 
soon established in Mulhouse. 

Meanwhile the old prohibitions had been elim- 
inated in France, Prussia, and England. French 
factories, particularly that of Oberkampf at 
Jouy, commenced to give the factories in Mul- 
house severe competition. Strangled by the 



10 The Spell of Alsace 

French customs duties, these could no longer find 
a market. In 1798, to save its manufacturing, 
Mulhouse sought annexation to France. 

This was a prodigious success. The wars of 
the First Empire opened to the Mulhousians all 
the markets of Europe, while the blockade of the 
continent delivered them from English compe- 
tition. Spinning, weaving, and printing mills 
multiplied. To the spinning of print cloths was 
soon added the production of muslins. The im- 
pulse given under the Empire continued even under 
the Restoration. 

But, about 1825, the manufacturers of Mulhouse 
began to recognize that this fabulous prosperity 
could not endure in a new Europe unless they 
worked with energy to perfect their machinery 
and their processes. The position of their town 
was unfavorable : it was distant from the harbors 
through which were imported its raw materials; 
distant from Paris, the principal market for its 
products; distant from the coal fields, which 
furnished it fuel. The Rhone-Rhine canal was 
not finished; railroads did not exist; trans- 
portation was tedious and expensive. It became 
impossible to compete with Rouen and Man- 
chester. It was then that a score of manufacturers 
joined in founding the Industrial Society of Mul- 
house. They held their first meetings in 1826. 



Mulhouse 11 



The society was recognized as "of public utility" 
in 1832. 

At first they intended only to collect all the 
scientific, commercial, and statistical information 
which would aid in the progress of manufacturing 
or agriculture. But the society was not slow in 
enlarging the field of its activities; it founded 
schools, museums, and clubs, opened laboratories, 
instituted researches and publications. It has 
given Mulhouse almost all the establishments 
and institutions which are its glory. 

It has created a school of design and a pro- 
fessional art school, endowed a school of chemistry, 
fostered a school of weaving and a school of 
spinning. It has founded a museum of natural 
history, geological collections, a technological 
museum, where are collected the raw material of 
different trades, and an industrial museum, where 
are exhibited specimens of printed calico, some 
coming from the Indies, others from different 
Alsatian factories as far back as the first attempts 
in 1746. This last collection, arranged in chrono- 
logical order, is not only a mine of materials for 
the designers, but what a collection for study for 
those who desire to follow the changes and revivals 
of taste and fashion! 

What best reveals the great intelligence of these 
rich manufacturers is that they have not been 



12 The Spell of Alsace 

content with schools or museums of direct and 
immediate usefulness in the development of their 
industry. Looking higher and farther, they have 
taken care to form popular taste, and have opened 
a museum of fine arts which from year to year 
becomes more valuable, and which already con- 
tains some admirable masterpieces by Henner. 
They have, above all, understood that civic pride 
is a great source of energy, and that nothing is 
better fitted to awaken such feelings than knowl- 
edge of the past and the sight of its relics. They 
have made archeological collections ; they have 
founded a historical museum, where they have 
collected furniture, arms, flags, portraits, play- 
things, wood carvings, medals, porcelains, glass, 
costumes, all the adornments of the public and 
private life of aforetime : a museum where, as in 
the old Council Hall of the Hotel de Ville, one 
feels the throbbing of the ancient heart of the 
little republic. Here, fragments of bunting, dis- 
colored banners, bring back the past ; here are the 
banner given by Julius II to Oswald de Gams- 
hart, Deputy from Mulhouse in 1512, which gave 
plenary indulgence to the soldiers who fought 
beneath its folds; the banner of the city, made 
for the celebration of the union of Mulhouse with 
France on March 15, 1798; the banner of 
the Gymnastic Society "V Union," founded June 




CARVED WOODEN DOOR FROM MASSEVAUX, MULHOUSE 

MUSEUM 



Mulhouse 13 



1, 1869, and dissolved July 1, 1878, which still 
bears the crape which displeased the German 
authorities and caused the suppression of the 
society. 

The people of Mulhouse, who have such lively 
and deep feeling for the interests of their industry, 
are, at the same time worthy men, human, gen- 
erous, conscious of their responsibilities. They 
have created numerous institutions of helpfulness 
and foresight for the working people of their 
factories. It was at Mulhouse that there was 
conceived and realized for the first time the idea 
of workmen's suburbs; Jean Dollfus, in 1852, 
built the first quarters of this kind. 

I traversed the immense section to the north 
of the city, occupied by the workmen's suburbs, 
in the center of which are placed the schools, the 
baths, the wash-house, the bakery, and the com- 
munity ovens. This quarter covers thirty-two 
hectares and contains 1,243 houses, each with its 
little garden. As today almost all manufacturing 
towns possess workmen's quarters, everybody 
knows these great collections of little uniform 
houses. At Mulhouse, however, their aspect is 
strikingly less dull and less monotonous than usual. 
The plan of this artificial quarter has a monotonous 
regularity, but the streets have an air of life, an 



14 The Spell of Alsace 

appearance of diversity, which I have never seen 
in the towns of Northern France. There the 
long rows of brick cottages pitilessly aligned, the 
scattered gardens, where washing hangs above the 
cabbage patches, express an infinite sadness and 
an almost tragic ennui. Here the gardens, estab- 
lished for a generation, are well furnished with 
plants, the shrubs have grown, the fruit trees are 
in full bearing, the leaves spread out above the 
fences over the streets. Then the houses are 
generally painted ; every owner has colored his 
home to his own taste; there are red houses, 
blue houses, green houses. Some of the tones 
conflict, in a most inartistic manner. But this 
difference in coloring serves to individualize the 
home and to break the monotony of the little 
house-fronts. 

Nevertheless, if we are to believe various writers 
the type of workmen's suburb which Jean Dollfus 
imagined must soon be abandoned. This sort of 
housing was invented with the idea that the work- 
man, by paying a little higher rent, might become 
the proprietor of his cottage and its little garden. 
This idea was at first successful. But the land 
on which this suburb was built fifty years ago 
has today become extremely valuable : many of 
the houses no longer belong to the workmen, but 
have passed into the hands of retail shopkeepers ; 



Mulhouse 15 



they have been raised a story, and are rented 
for profit. On the other hand, it has become 
evident that many workmen have no taste for 
gardening, and that others are insensible to the 
joys of ownership. Finally it has been asked if it 
is to the best interests of society thus to isolate all 
the workmen in a single quarter, apart from the 
commerce and wealth of the town. 

As soon as these doubts were raised, — here is a 
characteristic example of the ways of Mulhouse, — 
there appeared a man of property, M. Lalance, 
who advanced to the Industrial Society the neces- 
sary sum to try an experiment and create a new 
type of workmen's dwellings. A piece of land in 
the center of the town was purchased, and there, 
under the direction of M. de Glehn, was built a 
structure of three brick wings, each three stories 
high, surrounding a large common court. Each 
floor contains one or two small apartments, simply 
arranged, but light and airy, hygienically planned 
and rented at low prices. These apartments were 
immediately leased. 

If I mention these facts, it is not because I desire 
to exhaust a subject on which I possess little 
information, and I must refer economists to the 
report presented by M. de Glehn to the Industrial 
Society on June 24, 1903. But I desire to demon- 
strate by a recent example that Mulhouse is still 



16 The Spell of Alsace 

animated by the old-time spirit of enterprise and 
generosity. 

It was these men, jealous of their past, jealous 
of their independence, jealous of their industrial 
supremacy, jealous of the institutions which they 
had created, whom Germany has treated for 
thirty-three years like a captive tribe. If German 
sovereignty continues to be odious to all the people 
of Alsace, it is not surprising that it should be 
particularly intolerable to those of Mulhouse. In 
1798, they had voluntarily given themselves to 
France ; they had freely chosen the country which, 
in their belief, was most sympathetic to the tradi- 
tional ideals of their free city. So, nowhere was 
the protestation more ardent and more persistent 
than at Mulhouse. 

Even today nothing is changed. Every heart is 
still faithful to the Republic. 

For long years the manufactures of Mulhouse 
exhausted their resources in heroic sacrifices to 
avoid commercial relations with Germany. But 
one must live. "One must live " ; with what 
accents of poignant melancholy have I heard 
these words repeated everywhere in Alsace ! One 
must live : the French market was insufficient, 
and between were a frontier and custom houses. 
They resigned themselves to seek trade in Ger- 



Mulhouse 17 



many. But the industry remained Mulhousian 
in its directors, its workmen, and its capital. 
The entire population remains attached to the 
traditions of centuries. Each year, on the Four- 
teenth of July, the railway station at Mulhouse 
sells the same number of return-tickets for Belfort. 
When one talks with old men in Mulhouse, one 
finds among them no trace of weariness or dis- 
couragement ; they do not doubt the fidelity of the 
younger generations. What worries them in the 
future of their town is not the fear of seeing courage 
weaken. But too many Mulhousians, and those 
among the best, have left Alsace, and have 
voluntarily shut themselves out of their country. 
Are men, then, going to be lacking to keep up the 
work of the ancestors? Those who have stayed 
do not blame those who have left; perhaps they 
envy them. But they think sadly of the dangers 
which the old city undergoes with a decimated 
population. 



II 

ENSISHEIM. — ROUFFACH. — ISSENHEIM. 
GUEBWILLER. — MURBACH 

ENSISHEIM. — From the Rhine to the 
foothills of the Vosges stretches the great 
plain of Alsace, furrowed and fertilized by 
the tributaries of the 111. Endless rows of trees, 
silhouetted against the horizon, show the location 
of the highways. The lazy waters of the canals 
glide between low and grassy banks. Through 
the meadows, bright with poppies and cornflowers, 
the storks slowly promenade like sentinels. In 
the east and the west, through the summer haze, 
are faintly visible the ghosts of mountains. 

Ensisheim is a little town in the midst of this 
fertile plain, between Mulhouse and Colmar. The 
moats and walls of former days have disappeared. 
It is now surrounded with orchards and woods, 
around which ripple the waves of the ripening 
grain. It smiles the silent smile of tiny cities, 
old and rich, which possess memories, gardens, 
and well-cultivated fields. It has fine carvings 
on the doors of its mansions. Before its charming 

18 




W 

m 



P 

H 

<o 



Ensisheim 19 



hostelry, dating from the sixteenth century, still 
swings a lovely sign of beaten iron: "At the 
Crown"; and here were the headquarters of 
Turenne on the eve of the battle of Turckheim. A 
great Jesuit college is today turned into a prison, 
and from its circular driveway the German sen- 
tinel contemplates Turenne's hostelry. The Hotel 
de Ville is a charming'' monument of the Renais- 
sance. Its great hall where, after the Peace of 
Westphalia, sat the Sovereign Council of Alsace, 
possesses a balcony of rare elegance. This hall 
was restored twenty years ago. But the custodian 
allows me time neither to admire the balcony nor 
to curse the restorers. I must marvel at the 
wonder of Ensisheim, a meteorite which fell near 
here in 1492. His pained surprise is a mute re- 
proach because I evidently do not appreciate the 
importance of this phenomenon of which, for four 
centuries, every traveler has desired to obtain a 
bit, so that by now its weight has diminished to the 
extent of eighty kilograms. Finally, I am asked to 
meditate over this inscription, with which a good 
Latinist was inspired by the uncertainty of 
science : De hoc lapide multi multa, omnes aliquid, 
nemo satis. Oh ! yes ! satis ! 

Rouffach. — Here ends the plain. Behind 
Rouffach rise the first hills, planted with vine- 



20 The Spell of Alsace 

yards and, upon the summit of the ridge, appear 
the remnants of the castle of Isenbourg. 

Behold the most perfect of Alsatian landscapes : 
a beautiful church of red sandstone, the irregular 
gables of a little town, vines straggling up the 
hill, and, on the highest summit, the feudal ruin. 
Add to that, to complete the picture, in one of the 
streets of the town, the birthplace of a general of 
Napoleon; Rouffach was the home of Lefebvre, 
who took Dantzig, the same Dantzig which was 
later to be defended by Rapp, born at Colmar. 

The church of Saint Arbogast of Rouffach is an 
admirable monument which vandals have dis- 
figured a little : the Revolution there celebrated 
the Cult of Reason and profited by the occasion 
to annihilate numerous " vestiges of superstition" ; 
however, it broke neither all the capitals of the 
nave nor all the sculptures of the apse. Finally 
came the restorers, who rebuilt much, but who at 
least consented to respect the two unfinished 
towers of the church. These two unequal towers 
are now a part of the strange beauty of Saint 
Arbogast. 

In the interior I received for the first time a very 
pleasing impression, which I was afterward to 
experience in all the churches of Alsace, and even 
in the cathedral of Strasburg. These churches 
retained the decorations which had been put in 




o 

g 



Issenheim 21 

place for the feast of Corpus Christi. Every pillar 
was surrounded with young firs, which gave out a 
sylvan and penetrating odor. The church savored 
of the forest. This perfume made the shadow of 
the stone vaults cooler and more mysterious. 
And these trees harmonized so perfectly with the 
architecture of red sandstone ! What fine har- 
monies of color in the half light from the pointed 
windows of the nave ! 

Issenheim. — In the village of Issenheim stood, 
before the Revolution, the great and rich convent 
of the Antonites, the relics of which are today the 
most precious treasure of the museum of Colmar. 
Not one stone of it stands on another. I was 
shown in the cloister of Unterlinden at Colmar 
several very beautiful fragments of sculpture, 
which testify to' the magnificence of the Roman- 
esque church, razed more than a century ago. . . . 
So it was not curiosity to know the field " where 
once was Troy," which led me to Issenheim. 
This village, through the whim of a man of taste, 
has become celebrated a second time in the history 
of art. Here dwells M. Georges Spetz, whose 
precious collection is today one of the glories of 
Alsace. 

. The word collection is not the one to be used in 
this place. On leaving the marvelous and charm- 



22 The Spell of Alsace 

ing home where I had been received with so much 
grace and kindness, I carried away in my memory 
not only the image of beautiful works of art, but 
also the unforgetable remembrance of one of those 
rare days where all is in accord to move us to the 
depths of the soul : nature, art, the spectacle of 
the living, and the voice of the dead. It seemed 
to me that day that I had plucked the flower of 
Alsace. 

Nothing less resembles a museum than the home 
of M. Spetz. Two salons, decorated and furnished 
in the taste of the eighteentn century, are vivified 
by rare porcelains and fine statuettes scattered 
about on antique consoles. On the walls are 
hung a few charming portraits, showing, in their 
costumes of aforetime, the parents and the great- 
grandparents of the master of the household. 
From these open two halls filled with furniture, 
paintings, and sculpture of the fifteenth and six- 
teenth centuries. In this harmonious arrange- 
ment, where the place of each object has been 
thought out and determined with care, how far 
we are from the dull and heavy bric-a-brac of 
public or private galleries ! Delicious effects of 
light brighten the severity of the old oak. The 
whole collection is illuminated by the brilliant 
rays and reflections of stained glass, copper, 
gilded frames. All combine to form the most 



Issenheim 23 



perfect and most delicate of pictures, and this 
spectacle has so much grace and beauty that we 
linger tp savor the special charm of every object. 

Besides, the place is intimate, familiar, and 
cordial. Here we breathe life; we divine the 
continual presence of the master. The old arm- 
chairs are hospitable. The masterpieces seem to 
be arranged not to solicit admiration, but to 
awaken reverie. 

I cannot dream, after a visit of a few hours only, 
of describing the objects which M. Spetz has 
collected for the adornment of his house. All, 
or almost all, date from the Renaissance. Some 
were brought from Italy, such as a beautiful 
Sienese Madonna, and a magnificent prie-dieu of 
the fifteenth century; others from France, in- 
cluding magnificent Burgundian furniture from 
Sambin, a statue of Saint George, an exquisite 
statuette of a kneeling Virgin, which came from 
the church of Abbeville; still others from Ger- 
many. But what characterizes this collection, 
what makes its seductive originality, is that it is 
before all and above all an Alsatian collection. 
M. Spetz is enthusiastic in collecting the treasures 
of his native country. 

He has piously collected the relics of Alsace, 
and among them are some admirable specimens. 
A very beautiful Martyrdom of Saint Marguerite 



24 The Spell of Alsace 

by Schongauer belonged to the convent of Unter- 
linden at Colmar. A group of the Virgin, the 
Infant Jesus, and Saint Anna, painted in a popular 
style and representing with touching realism two 
Alsatian peasant women, once ornamented the 
church of the Recollects at Rouffach. This 
charming painted glass decorated one of the 
windows of the church of Gueb wilier. These 
porcelains came from the factories of Strasburg. 
These magnificent carved chests were found among 
the Alsatian peasant homes. This fine and grace- 
ful sanctuary lamp in wrought iron was suspended 
from the vault of the church of Roedersheim. 
Finally, here are some pieces which came from that 
convent of Antonites at Issenheim, which formerly 
stood three hundred paces from here : a mag- 
nificent porcelain stove in Louis XV style, a great 
wooden statue representing the Emperor Saint 
Henry, and another wooden statue of the fifteenth 
century, the Virgin carrying Jesus. This last is 
singularly elegant. The sumptuous and com- 
plicated folds of the robe, the grace of counte- 
nance, the fineness of the hands, something in- 
explicable of spirituality and freedom in the 
movement, all seem at the first glance to deny the 
date which is usually assigned to this sculpture. 
To judge by this charming half -smile, these over- 
worked draperies, one would almost be tempted to 



Issenheim 25 

recognize the hand of a statuary of the eighteenth 
century. Brief illusion: all the details of the 
workmanship protest against such a conjecture. 
Nevertheless, the Virgin of the Spetz collection 
remains a unique piece. In the engravings signed 
by Schongauer, or in the paintings attributed to 
him, one never sees anything as seducing, as 
feminine, as captivating as the face of this charm- 
ing Madonna. 

While contemplating these treasures of old 
Alsace, I cannot keep from thinking of Alsace of 
today. I have it under my eyes in this beautiful 
house. I listen to and look at the noble and simple 
man who does me its honors. I admire the delicate 
taste with which he has ordered everything in his 
home, without pedantry or ostentation, with the 
sovereign grace of the born artist. I listen to the 
accent of restrained tenderness with which he 
speaks to me of the past of his country and his 
family. I stop before the portrait of his great- 
grandfather, in the costume of a postmaster, with 
silver buttons engraved with the fleur-de-lis. . . . 
Then, through the windows of the salon I see the 
great garden, its greensward, its finely sanded 
paths, its trembling poplars, and — like a structure 
in a park of ancient days — an old Alsatian well 
with its uprights of sculptured stone. . . . 
Among all these things there exists a profound and 



26 The Spell of Alsace 

subtle harmony ; the Alsace of today is indeed the 
Alsace of yesterday, the Alsace of forever. 

Guebwiller. — Since the French Revolution, 
Guebwiller has become one of the principal 
centers of Alsatian industry. Everywhere there 
arise, on the banks of the Lauch, factories and 
rows of workmen's homes. But, before 1789, 
the vine growers of Guebwiller held their lands 
of the great Abbey of Murbach, with which they 
were continually quarreling. The town was thus 
formerly a town of monks. Three beautiful 
churches still attest this past. 

The Dominican Church of Guebwiller was built 
in the fourteenth century on the same plan as that 
of the Dominicans of Colmar. It has a triple 
nave sustained by high columns without capitals, 
a style whose sad and naked aspect is disconcerting 
to our eyes. Of the church of Colmar they had 
made a market ; they have treated that of 
Guebwiller in the same fashion. The first has 
nevertheless been returned to its proper use; 
but, when we see what modern architects have 
done to it, we hope that the latter will remain 
forever in the possession of the sellers of vegeta- 
bles and fish. At Guebwiller all the walls were 
painted, and it is lamentable that these frescos 
were allowed to perish. Now the damage is 



Guebwiller 27 



irreparable. While there still remain some traces 
of these paintings, they will soon disappear; no 
one is interested in their preservation. 

The church of Saint Leger has coarse sculptures, 
stern and energetic : it has three towers ; one, 
octagonal, dominates the crossing of the nave; 
the other two, square, flank the fagade. Within, 
the pillars are separated by very pointed arches : 
this would be a perfect example of the Alsatian 
Romanesque if there had not, much later, been 
added to the edifice two lateral naves of pure 
Gothic style. They destroy the primitive plan 
by disproportionately enlarging the building. 
And yet, how we must thank the restorers for not 
having tried to correct this error ! All that time 
or even chance adds to monuments must be 
respected. Would it not be impious to drive 
away the storks which have nested on the top of 
the tower of Saint Leger? Yet who would say 
that the builders of the church had foreseen in 
their plans this strange form of decoration ? 

The third church of Guebwiller was constructed 
at the end of the eighteenth century by the Prince 
Abbot of Murbach, Casimir de Rathsamhausen. 
The abbey had just been secularized by a bull of 
Clement XII. The chapter had fixed its residence 
at Guebwiller under the singular title of Insigne 
College Equestral, and had moved its marvelous 



28 The Spell of Alsace 

library thither. The new church was begun in 
1766, and solemnly dedicated nineteen years 
later. It is a vast monument of the so-called 
Jesuit style, but sober in decoration and majestic 
in appearance. The colonnades of the front are 
elegant. The design of the interior is bold and 
grand. I have before me a pamphlet written in 
1843 to urge the Alsatians to repair and complete 
the church of Our Lady of Guebwiller, and I read 
there: " There exists in Alsace a monument 
which can be regarded as a masterpiece of modern 
architecture, and which lacks onty a few stones to 
be, along with the marvelous basilica of Strasburg, 
one of the most beautiful religious edifices of 
France. It is the new parish church of Gueb- 
willer." The comparison is assuredly difficult for 
the new parish church of Guebwiller ; the names 
of Benque of Besancon, and of Ritter of Gueb- 
willer, will never attain the popularity of the 
name of Erwin of Steinbach; and it is cruel to 
recall to us the statues of the portal of Strasburg 
when viewing the contorted and frozen allegories 
which decorate the fagade of Guebwiller. How- 
ever, before the beautiful architecture of this 
Greco-Roman church, we must forget the disdain 
for its style which our fathers felt because of their 
disgust for academicism and their joy in the re- 
discovered Middle Ages. How much there still 



Guebwiller 29 



was of grandeur, grace, and harmony in the reli- 
gious edifices of the eighteenth century ! 

At the back of the choir rises a grand Gloria, 
the work of a German sculptor who lived at 
Guebwiller : a cloud escaping from a tomb bears 
up a triumphant Virgin, in the midst of the winged 
choir of Principalities, Dominations, and Thrones ; 
an angel of the Dominations heads the celestial 
troop; he wears a cuirass and a baldrick, and 
brandishes his baton as if he wished to throw it into 
the midst of the melee ; and he is charming, this 
young marshal of the angels, springing forward in 
the midst of clouds and palms, chivalrous and 
pompous as a hero of tragedy. 

Here are three churches which do not in the 
least resemble each other; and thus, without 
leaving home, the people of Guebwiller can study 
the vicissitudes of Christian art. But one thought 
is . borne in upon the traveler : none of these 
churches is like edifices of the same style con- 
structed at the same time in other countries. 
The center of France is rich in Romanesque 
churches; Dominican churches abound in the 
south; in the eighteenth century Greco-Roman 
churches were built everywhere. And yet, when 
we stand before Alsatian churches, we never 
have the feeling of having seen them elsewhere. 
Without doubt archeologists would discover pecul- 



30 The Spell of Alsace 

iarities of plan or decoration which would justify 
our surprise. But the grand, the true originality 
of Alsatian architecture in all periods is its fiery 
color. The red sandstone of the Vosges gives each 
of these monuments a unique accent. 

Murbach. — The valley of the Lauch, above 
Guebwiller, is called by a charming name. It is 
the Florival. 

Industry has not yet stolen all its grace from 
this delicious valley. On the left bank of the 
little river undulate the famous hillsides where are 
harvested well-known wines, " among which is 
especially distinguished the white wine called 
Olber, which unites to a delicious bouquet, known 
under the name of Eschgriesler, the virtue of 
opposing the formation of the gravel, and even 
sometimes of curing this sad malady." (Note 3.) 
On the other bank, hills covered with forests rise 
in steep slopes. In the bed of the valley, wherever 
the factories allow it, there still stretch flowery 
meadows. 

Buhl : a pretty new church on a scarped bluff, 
in the midst of the light green foliage of 
walnuts. . . . 

Then we dip into a little valley which opens into 
the Florival near the village; we skirt a great 
dried-up pool; a brook babbles under the trees; 




THE ABBEY OF MURBACH 



Murbach 31 



we pass under a large gateway, and suddenly we 
discover before us the two towers of a great church 
in Vosgian red sandstone, rising in the midst of the 
forest. We cannot forget the sudden vision of 
this grand mass rising, all glowing, among the 
clumps of woods which dot the narrow valley. 
It is Murbach ; at least, it is all which exists of the 
Abbey of Murbach, one of the most ancient and 
most powerful in Alsace. 

Of the monastery there remain only a gate, 
some foundations, some vaults. The nave of 
the church has been demolished. The apse, the 
transept, and the two bell towers have been re- 
paired, and alone remain standing to attest the 
former glory of Murbach. They are in the most 
beautiful, the most pure, the most imposing, 
Romanesque style. 

The interior of the edifice is almost bare. We 
still see there the tomb of a count of Eguisheim; 
the recumbent figure has fine features, round 
and cordial, honest and frank, a true Alsatian 
face. In the other arm of the transept is pre- 
served a cenotaph, dedicated in the eighteenth 
century to the memory of seven monks of 
Murbach, massacred in 929 by the barbarian 
Huns. The rest of the building is like a village 
church. 

We must climb the impossibly flowery slope 



32 The Spell of Alsace 

of the neighboring mountain, stop at the first 
firs, and from there contemplate the old basilica, 
mutilated, but still, in spite of this, sovereign of 
the valley. In the midst of nature, which is now 
slowly reconquering the domain of the monks of 
yesteryear, it appears so royally dominant, so 
superbly tutelar, that it suffices to evoke the past 
grandeur of Murbach. One thinks of Chateau- 
briand, and of those sublime phrases with which 
Montalembert was inspired: "A voice of glory 
and of wonder arose from the depths of the most 
frightful solitudes. . . . The fertile plains became 
a prey to savages who knew not how to cultivate 
them, while on the arid crests of the mountains 
dwelt another world, which, among these pre- 
cipitous rocks, had saved, as from a deluge, the 
remains of the arts and of civilization. But even 
as the fountains descend from the elevated places 
to fertilize the valleys, so the first anchorites 
descended little by little from their lofty seats to 
bear to the barbarian the word of God and the 
gentlenesses of life." Murbach and the other 
monasteries of Alsace were the advance guards of 
civilization. On more than one occasion they 
barely escaped being destroyed by return offensives 
of barbarism, coming from the Orient. But they 
became accustomed to repelling force by force. 
Around Murbach all the hill-crests are still crowned 



Murbach 33 

by the ruins of the fortresses which the monks 
built to defend their convent. 

These two towers, high and stout, are there as 
the indestructible emblems of the pride of the 
ancient monastery now vanished, noble and 
illustrious among all the abbeys of Christendom : 
for its abbot, a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, 
owed allegiance only to the Pope and the Emperor, 
and no one could become a monk there unless he 
proved sixteen quarters of nobility and furnished 
the surety of seven knights attesting his honor on 
the Holy Gospel. 

The sun declines, and, before it disappears 
behind the mountain which is already in shadow, 
illuminates the towers of Murbach. We must 
again take the road through Florival, whose 
heights now, in the gloaming, are silhouetted 
against the brilliant sky in graceful curves. . . . 

The night has come when I reach Lautenbach. 
Another marvelous Romanesque church in Vos- 
gian sandstone : one would say that through the 
gathering darkness it still holds the reflections of 
the setting sun. 



Ill 

COLMAR 

COLMAR was the birthplace of Baron 
Haussmann, but the spirit of the great de- 
molisher has not breathed upon his natal 
town : it has preserved its old streets and its old 
gables, its whole character of an old Alsatian city. 
As the great factories continue to group them- 
selves around Mulhouse, the new quarters of 
Colmar rise slowly beside the old quarters without 
disturbing these. Colmar, up to the present time, 
is satisfied with a single tramway line. 

As soon as we enter Colmar, we feel ourselves 
in a town of history and tradition, careful, before 
all, to maintain intact the precious reserves left 
to it by the centuries, reserves of glory, reserves 
of art, reserves of liberty. Colmar was a free 
city of the Empire and has not forgotten it. 
Colmar was a French city and still remembers it. 

Amidst the magnificent foliage of the Champ de 
Mars rises, above a fountain by Bartholdi, the 
statue of Admiral Bruat; farther on, in the 
midst of a vast esplanade, that of General Rapp. 

34 



Colmar 35 

These are the monuments of a capital. Else- 
where, we might be indifferent to these bronzes. 
But, like the statue of Kleber at Strasburg, they 
are here the witnesses, the indestructible witnesses 
of the past ; they testify clearly that Colmar was 
the capital of the Department of Haut-Rhin. 

Because of the caprices of its plan, the variety of 
its construction, the old Alsatian city is delightful. 
Everything here is irregular : no two houses show 
the same design or the same height ; the squares 
obstinately avoid all symmetry ; the streets wind 
about with singular detours. All these salients, 
all these angles, all these curves produce un- 
expected and exquisite plays of light and shade. 
Corbels throw fantastic shadows on the narrow 
streets; the sun glides suddenly between two 
peaked gables, illuminates the sculptures of a 
facade, and sparkles on the windows of a watch- 
tower. 

Low gates with large arches, casements with 
delicate mullions, wooden galleries with elegant 
balustrades, half-effaced frescos, sculptured con- 
soles and beams, fine medallions garlanded with 
ciphers, towers and belfries, belvederes and bay- 
windows, here we behold the whole decoration of 
the Renaissance. At the first glance we are 
tempted to say : of the German Renaissance. 
But, if we look a little closer, and especially if 



36 The Spell of Alsace 

we recall the houses of Nuremberg or Rothenburg, 
we quickly recognize in the architecture and the 
decoration of Colmar a natural instinct for pro- 
portion and harmony which discloses a particular 
taste, peculiarly Alsatian. Neither the architects 
who built these houses nor the sculptors who 
ornamented them were, perhaps, very illustrious 
masters. But their works reflect in a clear and 
startling fashion the reflective spirit of a people 
which, from antiquity, had known Latin culture, 
and which, in the sixteenth century, did not dis- 
cover, but did rediscover Italy. I know that such 
impressions are difficult to define categorically. 
But is it possible to pass before the delicious 
Pfister House in the Rue des Marchands, or 
before the House of the Heads in the Rue Vieille- 
des-Fondeurs, or before the graceful oriel of the 
Police Headquarters, without thinking that the 
Alsatian Renaissance is not the German Renais- 
sance ? 

These houses of the sixteenth century, some 
still preserving a touch of Gothic, others imitating 
the design of Venetian palaces, are neighbors to 
purely Alsatian mansions with uncovered beams, 
whose high stepped gables have the air of pagodas, 
with their redans decorated with crescents and 
little obelisks. In addition there are noble French 
structures of the eighteenth century, with pilasters, 



Colmar 37 

pediments, and garlands. A.nd all this pell-mell 
is charming. 

In this wonderful whole, there is only one false 
note. The German restorers, — a hundred times 
more terrible than even the French restorers, — 
have seized upon the old Custom House of Colmar. 
This was a curious edifice of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, done over in the time of the Renaissance 
and again in the seventeenth century, very 
picturesque by reason of the diversity of its styles 
and the irregularity of its construction. They 
have stripped it, they have restored it, they have 
made for it a beautiful new roof of dark tiles with 
green lozenges, they have gilded it, they have 
daubed it with paint, they have disfigured it. . . . 
It is a lost monument. 

To taste all the charm of Colmar it is necessary 
to wander at twilight through the southern quarter, 
which is traversed by the Lauch, and to find the 
Bridge of Saint Peter at the edge of the town. 
On the two banks very ancient houses seem to 
rise on tiptoe to peek at the little river over the 
foliage of their tiny gardens. Penthouses of tiles 
protect the little laundering places, which are now 
silent. Flat-bottomed barges are moored along 
the banks. The overlapping roofs merge into 
each other in the twilight, dominated by the 



38 The Spell of Alsace 

tower of Saint Martin. Here and there a window 
shows a light. 

The deep silence is disturbed by a tiny rippling 
of the water, and we see a long boat, loaded with 
vegetables, slowly pass under the arch of the 
bridge. At the bow, a woman armed with a 
boat hook steers the craft, which floats down the 
lazy current and soon disappears between the 
trees and the silent houses. ... A few moments 
later another boat arrives and disappears, similarly 
loaded. ... It is the fleet of the market 
gardeners, going to the market at Colmar. 

Night has come. A few stars shine in the dark 
water of the Lauch. The town is only a confused 
mass, dotted with a few lights ; and in the lumi- 
nous sky the tower of Saint Martin lifts its strange 
pointed cap. 

The church of Saint Martin (at Colmar they 
usually call it the Cathedral) is a building of the 
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, whose pro- 
portions are fortunate and whose nave is not 
without elegance. Its southern portal shows a 
very strange construction. The tympan is formed 
by a very beautiful pointed arch, in which a semi- 
circular arch is inscribed. Under this curve a 
singular bas-relief represents Saint Nicholas sur- 
rounded by beggars ; three of these poor wretches 




THE VIRGIN IN A THICKET OF ROSES 



Colmar 39 

seem to totter and fall down, one upon another, 
like a house of cards, without our being able to 
guess if the artist has thus wished to express the 
state of feebleness to which misery has reduced 
them, or if he has simply made use of this artifice 
to conform to the design of the tympan conceived 
by the architect. In any case, they are very 
beautiful carvings. 

Among the pretty statuettes of the archivolt, we 
distinguish that of a man carrying a square. He is 
the master-builder. Beside his portrait he has 
placed his name : Maistres Humbret. He came 
from the Isle of France. Let us note it in passing, 
and neglect the opportunity — sufficiently tempt- 
ing — to elaborate here upon the origins of 
Gothic architecture in Alsace. 

The great treasure of Saint Martin of Colmar is 
The Virgin in a Thicket of Roses, which is ordinarily 
attributed to Martin Schongauer. Even if the 
Madonna and Child do not move us either by their 
beauty or by their expression, the whole impression 
of the work is one of incomparable grace and 
splendor. We admire the magnificence and the 
freshness of the coloring, the beautiful and simple 
arrangement of the picture, the delicacy with 
which the birds, the foliage, and the flowers of the 
thicket are executed. Besides, we are stimulated 
by the comments of an enthusiastic and subtle 



40 The Spell of Alsace 



sacristan. . . . But let us reserve further dis- 
cussion of Martin Schongauer until we reach the 
museum. 

The museum of Colmar is installed in the 
buildings of the ancient Dominican convent of 
Unterlinden. This monastery was rich and cele- 
brated in the Middle Ages. Several of its nuns 
had visions, and numerous miracles are reputed 
to have occurred there. In 1793, the Revolution- 
ists devastated Unterlinden, which was later 
turned into a barrack. Toward the middle of the 
nineteenth century a society of amateurs and 
artists was formed under the name of the " Schon- 
gauer Society," and persuaded the town to make 
the necessary repairs and place the collections 
and the rich library of Colmar in the structures 
of the ancient convent which still remained 
standing. 

This museum contains the most precious relics 
of ancient Alsace. In the restored cloisters are 
arranged sculptures, fragments of demolished 
convents or churches. In the former chapel are 
exhibited the pictures. 

The modern museum is not rich; it would, 
however, be unjust not to mention a few admirable 
early paintings by Henner. But the ancient 
museum contains the most characteristic works of 



Colmar 41 

Alsatian art, the Schongauers, the Grunewalds, 
and the celebrated altar-screen of Issenheim. 

I have never better understood than at Colmar 
what obscurity envelops and always will envelop 
the origin of paintings, and how vain are the 
antics of critics bent on piercing this obscurity. 

Schongauer was a painter and an engraver. 
All his engravings are signed with his monogram. 
But we do not know a single painting by him which 
bears this monogram, nor a single one which an 
authenticated document allows us to attribute to 
his brush. Yet this does not prevent the critics 
from writing reams of foolishness on the paintings 
of Schongauer ! One affirms that The Virgin in a 
Thicket of Roses is incontestably by Schongauer, 
and that this Madonna must serve as a basis of 
comparison to determine what works shall be 
attributed or refused to the master of Colmar. 
Another judiciously remarks that, however se- 
ducing may be The Virgin in a Thicket of Roses, 
nothing, absolutely nothing, demonstrates that 
the author of it was Schongauer, and he imme- 
diately proposes another criterion which is no less 
doubtful. Another adduces undeniable resem- 
blances between certain engravings of Schongauer 
and certain paintings of the same period. But 
these engravings were already quite famous, and 
it is probable that numerous painters were in- 



42 The Spell of Alsace 

spired by them, perhaps independently of the 
master, perhaps under his direction. 

What seems to be accepted without controversy, 
is that in the fifteenth century there was in Alsace 
a very productive school of painting, a school 
whose inspiration was far more Flemish than 
German ; yet the word " Flemish " is not exact, 
since the artist whom Schongauer appears most to 
resemble is Roger de la Pasture, who was a native 
of Tournai. 

On the other hand, German criticism, because 
it must recognize these two compromising relation- 
ships, is today less interested in Schongauer. It 
prefers to dwell on Mathias Grunewald of 
Aschaffenburg, and wishes to make him the 
father of German painting. 

The pictures attributed to Grunewald are the 
glory of the museum of Colmar. They were long 
believed to be by Albert Dlirer. Then their 
author was called Hans Baldung Grien. Today 
he is called Mathias Grunewald. What will they 
name him tomorrow? (Note 4.) 

Little matters the name of the extraordinary 
painter to whom we owe the most tragic and the 
most dolorous representation that ever artist 
conceived of the scene on Calvary, the grotesque 
and terrifying Temptation of Saint Anthony, the 
light and luminous image of the risen Christ, 



Colmar 48 

the grave and sublime conversation of two hermits 
in the wilderness, the noble figure of Saint Anthony 
clothed in an episcopal costume, the delicious 
concert of angels celebrating the Coronation of 
the Virgin, the magnificent draping of the mantle 
of Saint Sebastian! Let the author of these 
strange masterpieces be a German ; it is probable ; 
and name him Grunewald, if such be your good 
pleasure. 

He has the most original and the most char- 
acteristic gift of Germanic genius; for with him 
the passion of the vision harmonizes with the 
fury of reality, and both are carried to excess, the 
first to hallucination, the second to puerility. He 
is a visionary, and at the same time a terrible 
realist: he surrounds sacred beings with 
mysterious halos, he spiritualizes them, he renders 
them divine, yet this does not in the least prevent 
him from painting with repugnant accuracy 
wounds, ulcers, and tumors, as if he were illus- 
trating a medical treatise. But this German did 
not remain in Germany: he saw Italy. The 
magnificence of his draperies, the fine beauty of 
certain countenances, the prodigious warmth of 
color, I know not what freedom of design and of 
accent, all reveal that he knew, understood, and 
loved the Venetian and Lombard masters. An 
unknown author who saw these paintings in 1789 



44 The Spell of Alsace 

in the convent where they then were, described 
them in several pages and was the first to make 
this very just remark (in regard to the two hermits 
conversing in the wilderness) : "In my opinion 
this painting is, after that of the Crucifixion, the 
most remarkable, because the landscape is more 
masterly in execution and quite in the manner of 
Titian." (Note 5.) The author of a very remark- 
able treatise on the museum of Colmar, M. Charles 
Goutz wilier, has gone farther. Having observed 
that the abbot of the convent of Issenheim, who 
ordered these paintings, was an Italian, he has 
suggested the hypothesis that the author of the 
paintings was perhaps an artist brought from 
Italy, who had to content himself with Alsatian 
peasants as models. . . . Here is, neverthe- 
less, an Italian whose taste was very suddenly 
Germanized ! 

Finally, at the rear of the Dominican chapel, 
transformed into a museum, there have been 
installed the remnants of an admirable high-altar 
which also came from the convent of Antonites at 
Issenheim. The painting which decorates the 
basement of the altar is without doubt from the 
hand of Grunewald, if Grunewald is the author 
of the works of which I have just spoken. Above 
the altar are arranged the busts of the twelve 
Apostles, very commonplace sculptures of the 



Colmar 45 

sixteenth century. Higher, between Saint'Augus- 
tine and Saint Jerome, is placed a grand figure of 
Saint Anthony the Hermit, of superhuman 
majesty. 

How did these paintings and these sculptures 
happen to come to rest in the museum of Colmar ? 
The story is worth telling. 

They belonged to the convent of Antonites at 
Issenheim, situated a few leagues from Colmar, 
at the mouth of the valley of Gueb wilier. This 
convent passed as one of the most wealthy of 
Christendom. In the eighteenth century travel- 
ers came from all over Europe to visit it. The 
treasures collected in the museum of Colmar 
give only a feeble idea of the magnificence of the 
monastery. 

The Revolution was pitiless along the upper 
Rhine. The Commissioner of the National Con- 
vention was Herault de S6chelles. I have just 
read the report which he made upon his mission. 
One sees there in full both the man and the work 
which he accomplished. "An orator had pro- 
nounced from the tribune of the Jacobins at 
Paris, shortly before my departure, this famous 
phrase, the only one which could have delivered us 
from our enemies, 'Let terror be the order of the 
day.' What he advocated I have done." Else- 
where : "By this all has been conciliated, safety 



46 The Spell of Alsace 

and principles; by this I have produced almost 
instantly in the Haut-Rhin the Revolutionary 
cure : men and things everywhere have submitted 
to the law. ..." Again, read this significant 
phrase : "A new movement had arisen in France ; 
one saw the altars crumble, before which so many 
generations had come to kneel; the priests and 
bishops surrendered their appointments; as em- 
barrassed by having chosen their condition as the 
nobles were by the chance of their pretended 
birth, they excused themselves for having existed. 
The relics, the metal saints, the bells, plunged 
into the national crucible ; the old temples, naked, 
despoiled of their treasures of gold and silver, and 
above all of the treasures of imagination and the 
senses, reduced to their columns and their dark 
obscurities, were renamed the sanctuaries of 
reason. . . ." 

The convents were abandoned and devastated, 
that of Issenheim like the others. But the whirl- 
wind passed and remorse arose for the recent 
vandalism. On the twenty-fourth of Vendemiaire 
of the year III, the Directory of the District of 
Colmar charged the citizens Marquaire and Karpff , 
alias Casimir, to seek out all the " objects of art 
or science," and to cause them to be carried to the 
National Library of the district. These two good 
Alsatians acquitted themselves of their task with 



Colmar 47 

much taste and zeal. Karpff was a designer, a 
pupil of David. 

Marquaire and Karpff (their manuscript report 
exists in the library of Colmar) declared to the 
Directory of the District that their researches 
had been fruitful. "But," added they, "in mak- 
ing fortunate discoveries we have had the regret 
to remark that, on the one hand, ignorance had 
destroyed very precious objects which it took for 
relics of feudality, and that, on the other hand, 
the carelessness of the Commissioners had allowed 
the great majority to be embezzled. . . . We pass 
over in silence the destruction of an immense 
number of objects which existed in the churches 
of the district, and of which we have found only 
useless fragments. . . . The carelessness of the 
Commissioners has lost to public education almost 
all the paintings and engravings which were to be 
found in the national buildings and those of the 
emigres. ..." This is the result of vandalism. 
We will not follow Marquaire and Karpff in the 
inventory of all the treasures which they saved. 
We will content ourselves with reproducing a few 
lines which they give to the altar of Issenheim; 
they are quite unexpected from the pen of a pupil 
of David and do great honor to his taste : "There 
is no monument more worthy of fixing the atten- 
tion than the carving of this altar, which is a pro- 



48 The Spell of Alsace 

duction of the chisel of the same Albert Diirer, 
and which is still standing in the church of the 
former Antonites at Issenheim. Nothing more 
elegant [exists] in the Gothic taste. The architec- 
tural ornaments which decorate this altar, which 
consist of gilded wood, imitate so perfectly castings 
in metal that one seems to see there all the light- 
ness of which this is capable. Although a little 
damaged by the removal of the figures and paint- 
ings in relief, one is surprised that a work so fine 
and so delicate should have been able to resist 
the injuries of many centuries, and be preserved 
in the state of perfection in which it still is today. 
The removal of the figures and paintings of this altar 
would be inexcusable, if such were not the dangers to 
which it was exposed while vandalism exercised all 
its fury. . . . With regard to the altar, it appears 
necessary to set it up again in its entirety, which, 
alone, would display all its beauty, and without 
which we coul^J transmit to posterity only fragments 
which, taken and considered separately, would have 
no effect, and would be nothing else than the 
history of a useless monument. . . ." 

The desire of these two men was only half 
accomplished, for it is told that two cartloads of 
painted and gilded sculptures derived from Issen- 
heim were transported into a neighboring prov- 
ince and sold. 



Colmar 49 

Is it not worthy of admiration, the zeal of the 
Commissioners of the year VIII, to whom we owe 
the paintings and the sculptures of the museum 
of Colmar? 

It is a festal day in Colmar. The gymnastic 
societies of Upper Alsace are holding a meeting 
on the Champ de Mars : a Turnfest. Garlands of 
greenery, orchestras, banners, postal cards. On 
all sides oriflammes flutter in the breeze. Some 
are green and red : these are, they tell me, the 
colors of Colmar. Others are red and white : 
these are the colors of Strasburg. Others are 
mere fantasy. Of a hundred flags, there are not 
three in the colors of Germany. The German flag 
appears only here and there, on a public monu- 
ment, at the door of an inn, a restaurant, or a 
large shop, and even there it never hangs alone. 
A green and red oriflamme always mingles its 
folds with those of the black, white, and red. 



IV 

AMMERSCHWIHR, KAYSERSBERG, AND 
RIQUEWIHR. — VOLTAIRE IN ALSACE. 
— SCHLESTADT. — HOHKOENIGSBOURG 

AT the foot of the Vosges, in valleys covered 
with famous vineyards, Ammerschwihr, 
Kaysersberg, and Riquewihr, three 
charming little towns of ancient and opulent 
Alsace, hide their grand towers, their picturesque 
houses, and their pretty fountains. 

On the way from Colmar luxuriant fields border 
the route. The flowers of the vineyards perfume 
the countryside. 

Ammerschwihr. — Ammerschwihr is at the foot 
of the last slopes of the mountains, at the spot 
where the Weiss, emerging from the valley of 
Orbey, enters the plains. 

It was, formerly, the city of Cadet-Roussel. It 
had three suzerains : the Emperor, the Lord of 
Ribeaupierre, and the Lord of Hohlandsberg. It 
had three provosts, each of its masters naming 
his own. It had three gates. It had three towers. 

50 




AMMERSCHW1HB, 



Ammerschwihr 51 

It retains its three towers, but only the storks 
nest there. 

It retains also its houses with wooden panels, 
its watchtowers, its turrets, its pointed roofs, its 
spiral staircases, its fountains, its great crucifixes, 
its ancient charnel-house, and its little squares 
where one might believe that a subtle artist had 
arranged everything for the amusement of the 
eye : the rosebushes, the gables, the overhanging 
roofs, the sculptures and the light. It still re- 
tains its Hotel de Ville, where a venerable hall 
seems still to await the coming of the three burgo- 
masters and the six councilors of time that is 
past, and where a painted luster in the form of a 
siren hangs from the ceiling of varnished walnut. 

Seeing me, eyes in the air, occupied in examin- 
ing the picturesqueness of his little town, an 
Ammerschwihrian approaches me and offers to 
serve as a guide. Above all, he desires to show 
me that he speaks French: how often in Alsace 
have I met such an ardor among the workmen 
and the peasants ! He wishes also to show me 
that he knows the history of the Revolution. 
He calls my attention to a large number of houses 
with escutcheons whose sculptures have been de- 
faced, and tells me that under the ancien regime 
the taxes were heavy and unjust at Ammer- 
schwihr. He speaks with indignation, as if these 



52 The Spell of Alsace 

were things of yesterday, of the tithes paid to the 
monks of Unterlinden at Colmar; he affirms to 
me that the houses decorated with these escutch- 
eons were exempt from the impost, and that 
the Revolutionists had desired to eliminate all 
traces of this privilege. Evidently this man does 
not blame the Revolutionists, but he adds sadly : 
"It is too bad, just the same, that they destroyed 
these antiquities ! They were very pretty !" 

Kayseksberg. — A free city of the Empire, 
Kaysersberg was a member of the League of Ten 
Cities of Alsace. Now it is a cantonal seat, with 
the air of ease and gaiety of a beautiful cantonal 
seat in France, and with the capricious and ir- 
regular grace of a little Alsatian town. The 
great donjon of its castle lifts its jagged head 
above the vine-branches of the hillside. The 
main street is a straight row — or nearly so — 
of stepped gables. In the market square, before 
the Romanesque portal, a bearded old saint 
with a great cross in his arm surmounts the town 
fountain. Within the church, decorated with fir 
branches, are the paintings which were formerly 
improperly attributed to Holbein and a beautiful 
Holy Sepulcher in stone where an enigmatic 
Magdalen seems almost to smile while presenting 
her perfumes. Beyond, a camel-backed bridge 



Kaysersberg 



Riquewihr 53 

crosses the Weiss ; and, on the two banks of the 
brook, the lines of the roof overlap each other in 
the most fantastic of confusions. 

Kaysersberg possesses a singular and charming 
street : on both sides, before the facades of the 
houses, are ranged boxes in which are planted 
laurels, pomegranates and other shrubs. This 
flowery way leads to the hospital. ... 

Riquewihr. — There are in Europe a few little 
towns where, as chance has maintained intact the 
externals of the past, we enter directly into the 
life of the men of other days; such are Rothen- 
burg in Bavaria, San Gimignano in Tuscany, 
Cordes in Albigeois, Ypres in Flanders, etc. . . . 
Riquewihr is one of these rare and exquisite places : 
its streets and houses retain today the same as- 
pect which they had at the time of the Renaissance. 

How is it that the centuries have modified so 
little the physiognomy of Riquewihr? 

In the first place, before the Revolution Rique- 
wihr did not follow the same path as the rest of 
Alsace. It was the capital of a little lordship 
which from the fourteenth century belonged to 
the dukes of Wurtemberg and of Montbeliard, 
and even after the Peace of Westphalia these 
dukes continued to govern their domain under 
the sovereignty of France. Riquewihr thus lived 



54 The Spell of Alsace 

in isolation until the time when it was incorporated 
with the French republic, and even then its for- 
feiture by the house of Wurtemberg was not 
sanctioned until the Treaty of Luneville was 
signed in 1801. This political isolation con- 
tributed to the individual aspect of the tiny 
principality. 

This is not the only reason for this originality. 
If the Riquewihr of today so much resembles the 
Riquewihr of the sixteenth century, it is because 
its inhabitants have, during all this time, changed 
neither their existence nor their ways nor their 
business. Vine growers they were, vine growers 
they remain. They continue to press out the 
lightest, the most perfumed, the freshest, and the 
most treacherous white wine of all Alsace, the 
" Riesling. " Upon their hillsides their beautiful 
vines, cultivated on stakes, describe, as far as the 
eye can see, great symmetrical curves, widely 
spaced, called franconis, because a horseman would 
have space enough to leap his horse across the 
rows of props. Scarcely do we enter the town 
before we perceive, nailed to all the house fronts, 
the signs of wine brokers : Weinsticher-Gourmet ; 
it is the French expression : gourmet piqueur de 
vin (skilled taster of wine), of which the German 
law requires that the first half should be expressed 
in German. In short, from time immemorial 



Riquewihr 55 

Riquewihr has had only one thought, Riquewihr 
has had only one means of fortune: the vine. 
Such a perpetuity of tradition attaches men to 
the familiar home, and endears to them the ancient 
stones of their city. That is why the ancient 
homes still stand and almost all the old stones 
have been respected. (Note 6.) 

Almost all! for, about the middle of the nine- 
teenth century, they demolished their ancient 
churches. And now they are building new houses 
outside the city wall, villainous new houses ! 
And the Under-secretary of State for the Post 
Office has just endowed Riquewihr with a post 
building of which he himself, they say, drafted 
the plans, and which, a mixture of Old German 
and New Art, in style resembles a brewery. 

Riquewihr was well defended against plunderers 
who might be tempted to come to taste the wine 
of its cellars; it was protected by a double line 
of walls, and two high square towers still sur- 
mount the gates on the western side; the port- 
cullis is still in place. 

The streets offer the same picturesque ensemble 
— but here more complete and richer — which 
has already ravished us in the other little towns 
of Alsace : decorated beams, fine turrets, and bay- 
windows with balconies of stone. All the houses 
of the burghers of Riquewihr are constructed on 



56 The Spell of Alsace 

a single plan. Facing the street is a graceful 
facade, ornamented with devices and timber work. 
A large carriage gate gives access to a court sur- 
rounded by the living quarters and by high walls, 
often battlemented, for each home formed a little 
fortress. In an elegant turret, nestled up to the 
house and terminated by a pointed roof, winds a 
spiral staircase. Near it a well lifts its uprights 
of finely sculptured stone. I entered one of these 
homes where they had piously preserved the heavy 
and magnificent wood-carvings of olden time. I 
saw the great hall of the first story which receives 
light through the windows of the projecting bay, 
the massive doors, the coffered ceiling, the porce- 
lain stove; and I received in this old Alsatian 
home an impression which I can scarcely define of 
wealth, of cordiality, and of immutability. I had 
wandered through the streets, the squares, and the 
alleys of Riquewihr, I had made the tour of the 
ancient moats of the town with vines growing on 
their very edges, I had just glanced at the old 
castle of the dukes of Wurtemberg, today re- 
stored, alas! and converted into a school, when 
I stumbled on the Rue Voltaire. 

The Rue Voltaire, at Riquewihr ! . . . At Col- 
mar, several days before, I had already seen the 
house of Voltaire. The Alsatians, then, have not 
lost the memory of the sojourn which the author 




A STREET IN RIQUEWIHR 



Voltaire in Alsace 57 

of the Henriad made among them. As the whole 
world has not as good a memory as the Alsatians, 
let us open a volume of his correspondence. 

Voltaire lived fifteen months in Alsace, from 
August, 1753, to November, 1754. This was 
neither the happiest nor the most glorious period 
of his life. 

He had just quarreled with Frederick. Bru- 
tally arrested at Frankfort by order of the sover- 
eign, he had recovered his liberty only after he 
had returned to Potsdam his chamberlain's key, 
his decorations, and the "poetical" works of his 
royal disciple. A sojourn of a fortnight with 
the Palatine Elector Charles Theodore comforted 
him a little. At the little court of Schwetzingen 
he was offered encomiums and fetes. Thence 
he traveled to Strasburg, accompanied by his 
secretary Collini. 

He was then in a difficult situation. His rup- 
ture with Frederick had closed Germany to him. 
However favorably disposed to him Madame de 
Pompadour might be, he could not dream of 
returning to Paris. Discovering no asylum where 
he might rest in his old age and nurse his ills, he 
decided to remain in Alsace. He was also urged 
to this by a double motive. He had promised the 
Duchess of Gotha to write a summary of the 



58 The Spell of Alsace 

history of Germany, under the title Annates de 
VEmpire, and he believed he could find in Alsace 
all of the reference books which he needed to 
complete his task. On the other hand, there was 
a favorable opportunity for him to protect his 
own interests : in 1735, he had lent a capital of 
300,000 livres to Duke Charles Eugene of Wurtem- 
berg against a contingent annuity of 7500 reichs- 
thalers, and this debt was secured by a mortgage 
on the vineyards of Riquewihr. He was pleased 
at the opportunity to assure himself that the 
security was good, and the vineyards wisely 
administered. 

After a few weeks passed at Strasburg, he came 
to Colmar, and installed himself in a house in 
the Rue des Juifs, belonging to a married couple 
named Goll. The rooms which he used — two on 
the ground floor — are now occupied as an apothe- 
cary shop. The two windows which open on the 
street are fitted with beautiful gratings. "On the 
wall there is no memorial tablet, but an advertise- 
ment of a tooth- wash. 

"I dwell, " wrote Voltaire, "in a filthy house in 
a filthy town." Nevertheless, he accommodated 
himself to the house and to the town : his hosts 
were kind and attentive; learned and charming 
men came to visit him, such as that advocate of 
the bar of Colmar, M. Dupont, "a man of great 



Portraits of Voltaire 

Potrelle's, Bromley's Prints. — Etched by S. A. Schorl 



Voltaire in Alsace 59 

independence of ideas, amiable, gifted with a 
lively and playful imagination, and a great lover 
of literature"; Collini played a game of chess 
with him every evening; the young cookmaid 
Babet, witty and talkative, showed him " atten- 
tions which servants do not ordinarily show to 
their masters"; finally, he had at his command 
the books and the men necessary to inform him 
upon the history of Germany, and the printer 
Joseph Schoepflin, brother of the historian, edited 
his Annates de V Empire. He certainly grew to 
like Alsace, for he dreamed of building a beautiful 
house on the ruins of the castle of Horbourg, 
which belonged to his debtor the Duke of Wurtem- 
berg. As "this venerable ruin" was involved in 
a lawsuit, he gave up the idea, writing: "I am 
not going to build a hospice which would have a 
lawsuit for a foundation" ; but he began to seek 
for another property. Unfortunately, in Alsace, 
as elsewhere, Voltaire could not escape the three 
enemies which everywhere marred his happiness : 
the gout, literary pirates, and the Jesuits. 

He was accustomed to pretend illness : it was 
his way of getting rid of bores; but, above all, 
by giving himself out as dying, he expected to 
excite the compassion of his friends and to give 
his enemies the reassuring hope of an approaching 
deliverance. We must, therefore, not be too much 



60 The Spell of Alsace 

misled by his eternal complaints, and not take 
him too seriously when he writes to Madame de 
Fontaines : " Do you paint from the nude, Madame, 
and have you models? When you would like to 
paint an old wrapped-up invalid, with a pen in 
one hand and rhubarb in another, between a 
doctor and a secretary, one with books and the 
other with a syringe, give me the preference. " 
Nevertheless, the climate of Alsace was too rigor- 
ous for him. He passed a few days at Lutten- 
bach, in the valley of Munster, a few weeks in 
the Vosges and at Plombieres; the rest of the 
time he remained immured in his little apart- 
ment in the Rue de Juifs, working incessantly. 

In the month of December, 1753, he wrote to 
Madame de Pompadour: "The King of Prussia 
was born to be my evil genius. I am not speak- 
ing of the unheard-of affection which he lavished 
on me to tear me from my native land. It now 
turns out that an unrevised manuscript which I 
lent him in 1739 was captured, as they say, in 
his baggage, at the battle of Sohr, by Austrian 
hussars ; that a servant sold it to Jean Neaulme, 
publisher at The Hague and Berlin, who prints 
the works of His Prussian- Majesty ; and finally 
that this publisher has printed and disfigured it. 
Meanwhile, Madame, the King is very humbly 
begged to consider that my niece at Paris is 




PORTRAIT OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 



Voltaire in Alsace 61 

dying. . . . The King is full of pity and kind- 
ness; he will perhaps deign to remember that I 
have employed several years of my life in writing 
the history of his predecessor and that of his 
glorious campaigns; that, alone among the 
academicians, I have made his panegyric, which 
has been translated into five languages. " And 
Voltaire asks that he may be permitted to come 
to Paris to arrange his affairs, and " provide 
bread for his family." In drawing up his petition 
he well knows that it will not be granted and that 
he will not be allowed to come to Paris; but he 
wishes to put on record that he disavows the 
edition of the Abrege de VHistoire Universelle 
published under his name by the publisher of 
The Hague and Berlin, for in this pirated edition 
there, were not only absurdities and typographical 
errors, but also skillful interpolations and sup- 
pressions, which, by modifying the thoughts of 
the author, must have caused despair to his pro- 
tectors and joy to his enemies. 

The danger was not imaginary. The Jesuits 
were powerful in Alsace. Four years before, they 
had burned Bayle's Dictionary in the market place 
of Colmar, and an advocate-general had himself 
thrown his copy into the fire. Voltaire knew the 
story. He knew also that a certain Jesuit, Father 
Merat, was intriguing against him. To avert the 



62 The Spell of Alsace 

danger, he judged it politic to write a sufficiently 
insipid letter to another Jesuit, Father Menoux. 
The latter, who did not believe a word of Vol- 
taire's protests, made fun of him, and thus ended 
his reply: "How unfortunate that I cannot es- 
teem you as much as I love you !" The situation 
became critical. It was not only Father Merat 
who demanded the banishment of the heresiarch. 
Father Kroust and Father Ernest, mortal enemies 
of Voltaire, were in the plot. The Prince Bishop 
of Bale launched against him the Jesuits of his 
college. . . . But suddenly the tempest passed 
over, and, in April, 1754, hoping to disarm forever 
the Jesuits who were at his heels, Voltaire sent 
for a Capuchin monk, secluded himself with him, 
and went to receive the sacraments. 

What church of Colmar was the scene of this 
sacrilege? The parish church of Saint Martin 
or the chapel of the Capuchin convent? Collini, 
the faithful secretary, has not told us ; but he has 
left ten lines on this subject to paint the picture : 
"I avow that I profited by such a rare occasion 
to examine the countenance of Voltaire during 
such an important act. God will pardon me for 
this curiosity and for my distraction. At the 
moment when he was about to communicate I 
raised my eyes to heaven, as if in prayer, and I 
cast a sudden glance at Voltaire's attitude; he 



Schlestadt 68 

presented his tongue and fixed his wide-open 
eyes upon the face of the priest. I knew such 
glances. When he got home he sent the Capuchins 
a dozen bottles of good wine and a loin of veal" 
(Note 7). 

This " first communion" caused a great scandal, 
and did not stop the persecution. Six months 
afterward, Voltaire had to quit Alsace, not having 
found there the sure asylum for his old age of 
which he had dreamed. He went first to Lyons 
and then to Switzerland. 

At Colmar he had finished the Annates de 
V Empire, and written the Orphelin de la Chine. 
The Annates are not the best of his historical 
works. The Orphelin is not the best of his dramas. 
This, however, matters very little to the wine 
growers of Riquewihr. They are proud that their 
vines should have guaranteed the income of Vol- 
taire and that the revenues of their fields should 
have perhaps served to satisfy the fancies of 
Madame Denis (Note 8). 

Schlestadt. — Schlestadt has the melancholy 
appearance of towns of fallen fortunes. Above 
all the free cities of Alsace, it was distinguished 
in former days by its passion for independence 
and for war. During the Renaissance it became 
one of the great foci of humanism. Its pride 



64 The Spell of Alsace 

with difficulty resigned itself to its conquest by 
Louis XIV. During the Revolution it became 
the prey of factions. It had forgotten, however, 
this turbulent and glorious past, satisfied with 
its destiny as a French subprefecture and content 
with its industrial prosperity, when the War of 
1870 and the annexation struck it a fatal blow. 
Since that time its industry has dwindled away 
and its population has decreased. ... It re- 
mains silent and dejected. 

It has its relics : its painted tower and its two 
admirable churches of Saint George and Holy 
Faith. Under the vaulted roof of its beautiful 
library it guards the venerable books which the 
illustrious humanist Beatus Rhenanus bequeathed 
to his natal town. But its tortuous streets are 
the realm of silence. Its squares lie deserted, like 
the courts of a beguinage. We hear the shoes of 
a rare pedestrian resound upon its pavements for 
great distances. Before Saint George, at the 
moment when I crossed the parvis, I perceived 
at a window, behind a lifted curtain, the face of a 
curious old woman : she examined with surprise 
the stranger, the unknown. A few minutes later, 
I returned to the same spot ; I again saw the same 
curtain lifted; but the lean yellow hand let it 
drop immediately, and this brusque and dis- 
couraged gesture meant very clearly: does one 



Schlestadt 65 



ever see, before Saint George, two new faces in a 
single afternoon? 

The little museum of Schlestadt possesses a 
female bust of strange and sorrowful beauty. A 
few years ago, while restoring the church of Holy 
Faith, workmen uncovered some ancient tombs. 
Upon the body of a woman buried at this place 
had been thrown a layer of lime, in which were 
modeled every feature of the face and every detail 
of the clothing. The imprint was as perfect as 
that of the corpses found in the hardened ashes 
of Pompeii. The masons emptied the mold 
formed by the lime, ran in plaster, and obtained 
an image of the dead. Naturally there were some 
individuals who were not willing that this should 
remain nameless; they discovered a name for it 
and proved that this woman had died of the 
plague. One side of the face seemed to be de- 
stroyed as a result of the illness, and this ex- 
plained, as they said, the burial in lime. Less 
imaginative archeologists have attributed the 
marks on the face to the imperfection of the 
casting ; they have pretended that the body was 
covered with lime to separate it from other bodies 
enclosed in the same grave, that all the legends 
must be abandoned, and that no one would ever 
know the name of the buried woman. . . . Let 
us agree to bless the archeologists who let us 



66 The Spell of Alsace 

dream quietly before this admirable bit of sculp- 
ture, which one might believe was modeled by 
Verrocchio. Each of us is at liberty to invent 
his own answer to the enigma of these pure and 
sad features, and to construct, according to his 
own fancy, the romance of this noble creature to 
whom death seems to have given peace, but not 
forgetfulness of earthly suffering. 

Hohkoenigsbourg. — The castle of Hoh- 
koenigsbourg crowns a precipitous mountain, 
an outlier of the Vosges chain. It overlooks 
from far above the donjons which rise on all 
the neighboring crests, and seems to command 
the plain of Alsace. As soon as we perceive it, 
we understand the thought of Wilhelm II in 
choosing this old fortress to make of it the emblem 
of imperial sovereignty over the conquered prov- 
ince. 

In 1899, Hohkoenigsbourg was only a ruin, 
magnificent and moving, but fast crumbling to 
nothingness : its sculptures had sloughed away ; 
its roofs were broken through; vegetation had 
entirely covered it. The town of Schlestadt, 
owner of the castle, was too poor to preserve 
this admirable ruin. In 1899, it offered the do- 
main to the emperor, who accepted the present : 
"May this gift," he wrote to the burgomaster of 



Castle of Hohkoenigsbourg 



Hohkoenigsbourg 67 

Schlestadt, " become a new bond of confident love 
between me and the empire, and may the Hoh- 
koenigsbourg forever behold at its feet a peaceable 
country and a happy population!" 

Wilhelm II undertook to restore, which means 
in German as in French to rebuild, Hohkoenigs- 
bourg. He entrusted the task to an architect 
who passes as very skillful in such matters, Herr 
Bodo Ebhardt. Not all his subjects approved the 
project of their emperor. Some protested against 
this restoration, and claimed that he was going to 
spend in this business a great deal of money to 
destroy a grand ruin, which it would be sufficient 
to consolidate. But such ideas — which are held 
by few even in France — appeared in Germany 
the most ridiculous of paradoxes. No people in 
Europe is obsessed as much as the Germans with 
the mania of the old-new and the passion for 
sham antiques. Besides, just as Wilhelm II does 
not fear the most sudden and unexpected political 
volte-faces, his esthetics remain imperturbable. 
He has a confidence in his own taste which noth- 
ing can shake, and this taste is mediocre. So 
he restored Hohkoenigsbourg. He knowingly 
recommenced here those expensive follies which 
Napoleon III allowed Viollet-le-Duc to commit 
at Pierrefonds. I have before me photographs 
of Hohkoenigsbourg in 1899 : what a disaster ! 



68 The Spell of Alsace 

The work is pursued actively. The workmen 
are numerous. I could scarcely walk about in 
the midst of the carts and scaffolds which filled 
the courts of the old castle. An electric crane, 
installed at the head of the donjon tower, raised 
the materials. And it was a deliciously comic 
spectacle to see all these modern engines em- 
ployed to build a medieval fortress. Never have 
I seen as clearly as in the shops of Hohkoenigs- 
bourg the infinite puerility of restorations. So 
much effort, so much knowledge, so much money 
spent to build a bit of stage scenery ! The 
beauty, the formidable beauty of these old towers 
of the Middle Ages, was above all created by our 
imagination when we thought of the terrible labor 
of the men who placed these masses of granite. 
All these towers, all these fortifications, con- 
structed by electricity and steam, are only a 
ridiculous pastiche, frozen and speechless ! 

We live in 1903 : an architect, who is perhaps 
not lacking in talent, consecrates his ingenuity to 
reconstructing a keep of the thirteenth century 
and walls of the fifteenth ; masons build crenela- 
tions and machicolations, in such a way that the 
projectiles may rebound, curve backward, and 
decimate the besieging hosts; carpenters con- 
struct wooden shutters to ornament the crenela- 
tions, and painters paint these shutters black, for 




« 
o 

« 

O 
i— i 

o 
M 
W 
o 

H 

|Z5 

Q 



Hohkoenigsbourg 69 

a mysterious end which my ignorance of the rules 
of fortification prevents me from guessing ! And 
when all these workers shall have terminated their 
work, there will arrive an army of " professors, " 
who will paint upon the walls of the castle his- 
toric battle scenes. What imbecility all this is ! 

" Photographieren verboten" photography for- 
bidden, is written on the gate of Hohkoenigsbourg. 
Why this interdiction ? Is it that, perchance, the 
restorers of the castle may be conscious of the 
foolishness of their electric crane, perched on a 
feudal tower, and may wish to insure that no one 
should preserve a remembrance of this somewhat 
ridiculous phase of their enterprise ? Or rather do 
they desire to prevent some " foreign power " from 
learning the secret of the crenelations and the 
machicolations of Hohkoenigsbourg ? We can be- 
lieve neither in so much shame nor in so much 
prudence. Then why, why, this photographieren 
verboten f 



SAINTE-ODILE AND OBERNAI 

SAINTE-ODILE. — Here are the holy 
places of Alsace. All is here legendary 
and sacred : the trees, the rocks, and the 
streams. A whole people comes here continually 
to question the witnesses of its most ancient his- 
tory, to renew its faith, and to reassure its hope. 
Under the mosses of the forest, it discovers the 
great stones of the wall behind which its ancestors 
sheltered their gods and their children when the 
barbarians burst into the plain. It comes to the 
tomb of Saint Odile, the gentle heroine who 
braved persecution to remain faithful to her 
vows and merit the fulfillment of the divine 
promise, to listen to the voice of the Christian 
virgin, which teaches it the irresistible power of 
stubborn wills and indomitable hearts. 

Omnia si perdas, verbwn coeleste reserva. If 
you lose all, preserve the sacred word. Alsace 
has never ceased to obey this injunction, which 
may still be seen engraved in stone on one of the 
towers of Obernai. 

70 



Sainte-Odile and Obernai 71 

Great forests envelop the mountain whose 
summit bears the monastery of Sainte-Odile. 
Taine has described them in some pages to which 
I take pleasure in sending you; for they form 
one of the most magnificent and finished pictures 
which this admirable artist has given us (Note 9). 

" Things are divine : that is why it is necessary 
to conceive gods to express things : each land- 
scape has its own, somber or serene, but always 
grand." Such is the theme of this admirable 
passage. Its sentiment is quite in the manner 
of Goethe, and it precedes a brief study of Iphi- 
genia in Tauris. . . . Now, as I was recently 
rereading Truth and Poetry, I came upon the 
following passage: "I still recall with pleasure a 
pilgrimage to Ottilienberg, undertaken with a 
hundred, or perhaps a thousand believers. In 
this place, where still may be seen the foundations 
of a Roman castellum, a young and beautiful 
countess had, they say, retired, from pious in- 
clination, to the midst of crevasses and ruins. 
Not far from the chapel where the pilgrims pay 
their devotions, her fountain is shown and of 
this gracious legends are told. The image which 
I formed of her, together with her name, are 
deeply graven in my memory. They will long 
remain with me; I even gave this name to one 
of my daughters, a late comer, but not less 



72 The Spell of Alsace 

cherished (Ottilie in Elective Affinities), who was 
received with great favor by pure and pious 
souls.' ' 

The lyrical description of Taine, contrasted to 
the somewhat prosaic dryness of Goethe, together 
make a fine subject for meditation for the strollers 
in the forest of Sainte-Odile, to whom the coolness 
of the ravines and the play of light on the silvery 
trunks of the firs should not render all literature 
distasteful. One could thus measure in turn the 
influence of Germanic culture on Taine and that 
of French culture on Goethe. 

After traversing the outline of that mysterious 
enclosure which is customarily called the Pagan 
Wall and which was a sort of camp of refuge 
built by the Celts (Note 10), we enter the monas- 
tery of Sainte-Odile. Century-old lindens shade 
the great entrance court. 

The church, situated at the end of this court, 
communicates with a very ancient chapel, where 
the relics of the saint are exposed in a shrine for 
the veneration of pilgrims. We see also in a 
glazed sarcophagus the painted statue of the patron 
saint of Alsace : her face is pink, her hair flaxen, 
and the body is enveloped in a great violet mantle. 

Of the ancient convent, many times burned, 
there remains no more than two rude and venerable 
bas-reliefs built into the wall of one of the corri- 



Sainte-Odile and Obernai 73 

dors, which seem to date from the twelfth cen- 
tury. The present buildings date only from the 
seventeenth. They are simple and characterless. 

A property of the bishopric of Strasburg, the 
monastery is occupied by sisters of the Third 
Order of Saint Francis. Here they keep a veri- 
table hotel : and even though served by attentive 
and smiling nuns, the table d'hote is none the less 
in this " pension" the dull and dreary table d'hote 
of all " pensions," where each summer people enjoy 
the melancholy pleasures of the summer resort. 

I quickly shook off this annoying impression on 
the terrace, the marvelous terrace, whence we 
overlook a chaos of forests and may see, it is 
said, twenty towns and three hundred villages. 
I did not see them : thick clouds hung from 
mountain to mountain all around Sainte-Odile. 
The plain appeared only in sudden glimpses 
through the heavy storm clouds, and I have re- 
tained an almost tragic remembrance of this 
spectacle. 

It is on this platform that M. Rene" Bazin has 
staged the most moving and grandiose scene of 
his Les Oberle. It is there that he has shown the 
pilgrims assembled on Easter Eve to hear, mount- 
ing from the plain, the song of all the bells of 
Alsace : " Voices of little bells and voices of great 
cathedral bourdons; voices which did not cease, 



74 The Spell of Alsace 

and which from one stroke to another were pro- 
longed in undertones ; voices which passed light, 
intermittent, and fine, like a shuttle through the 
warp ; monstrous choirs, whose singers could not 
see each other; an allegro from a whole popu- 
lation of churches; canticles of eternal spring, 
which rose from the bottom of the plain, veiled 
with mist, and soared to melt together at the 
summit of Sainte-Odile." An admirable picture, 
where the novelist has reproduced with passionate 
tenderness all the beauty, all the faith, and all the 
sadness of Alsace. 

Since I have quoted Les Oberle, I wish in pass- 
ing to confirm the truth of the pictures of M. 
Rene Bazin. I have recognized the lines, the 
colors, and the perfume of the landscapes which 
he has described. I have questioned the men; 
I have found on their lips the same words and in 
their hearts the same sentiments which he has 
attributed to them. His characters are truly the 
Alsatians of today. They affirm it, and when 
they speak of Les Oberle, they attest the moral 
resemblance of the portraits. On two points only 
have they, in my presence, made any reservations. 
One man said to me : " Jean Oberle did wrong to 
desert; his duty was to remain at home to save 
Alsace." I replied that Jean Oberle found him- 
self involved in a terrible tragedy, and that the 




o 

o 



£ 



Sainte-Odile and Obernai 75 

drama conceived by M. Rene Bazin could have 
no other ending than that desertion. Another 
said : " There have been in Alsace cases of going 
over to the enemy, but there is not a single Al- 
satian manufacturer who would have committed 
all the treasons of Joseph Oberle. There is for 
example, M. X. . . . ; he had accepted honors 
and dignities from the Empire, but he would not 
allow anyone to speak German in his house, and 
he has never invited a German officer to his table. 
Those who are always cited as perfect converts 
were never true Alsatians, attached to their 
country; they had the manners and the souls 
of lackeys long trained to servility." I replied 
that a novelist is obliged to create types, that 
M. Rene Bazin has made Joseph Oberle the 
type of a renegade, and that he had, in inventing 
him, to combine various observations. 

In the final analysis, these two criticisms lead 
to the same reproach, which is a little vain when 
one addresses it to a novelist, that of having 
written a romance. Alsace, which has read Les 
Oberle, is not deceived by it. It was pleased that 
a French writer should have spoken so well of its 
grief and its fidelity. 

Obernai. — Each " time that one leaves the 
Vosges for the plain, in Upper Alsace, there is 



76 The Spell of Alsace 

the same succession of pictures : forests of firs, 
then a cool and narrow valley, where a little river 
turns the mill wheels, then vineyards, and finally, 
at the foot of the last hill, the watchtowers and 
belfries of a little city. When we descend from 
Sainte-Odile, the valley is called the Klingenthal, 
the river the Ehn, the little city Obernai. This 
one is charming, even among all its beautiful 
sisters. 

It bears a name whose sound is soft and clear. 
It was the birthplace of Saint Odile, daughter of 
Atticus, Duke of Alsace. It has great fortifica- 
tions of the thirteenth century, which were de- 
fended against the English companies, against 
the Armagnacs, and against the rebellious peas- 
ants. It ravishes the ear, the eye, and the im- 
agination. 

It possesses an elegant belfry, a well whose 
stone baldachin is sustained by three delicately 
ornamented Corinthian columns, a new church 
which, though heavy and ungraceful, contains a 
magnificent altar of the sixteenth century. Its 
Hotel de Ville is a marvel, where, as in the other 
monuments of Obernai, the late Gothic and the 
early Renaissance harmonize in the most un- 
expected and delicious fashion: the projecting 
loggia of the facade is one of the finest to be seen 
in Alsace ; the wrought iron fittings of the doors 




A WELL AT OBERNAI 



Sainte-Odile and Obernai 77 

are extraordinarily complicated ; and in the former 
Hall of Justice, an uninspired painter has repre- 
sented on the walls scenes from the Old Testament 
symbolizing the Ten Commandments. In a cellar 
of the Hotel de Ville are stored the archives of 
Obernai : a historian, Canon Gyss, has classified 
the 23,000 documents, of which the most famous, 
if not the most reliable, is the family tree of Atticus, 
father of Saint Odile. 

The chapel of the hospital of Obernai contains 
some old pictures of the Alsatian school; one of 
them being signed : " 1508. H. H." It] has been 
attributed to Hans Holbein, but incorrectly. 



VI 

SAVERNE. — MARMOUTIER. — BIRCKEN- 
WALD. — SAINT-JEAN-DES-CHOUX 

SAVERNE. — A great village around a 
great barrack, which was, in the eight- 
eenth century, one of the most superb 
palaces of France, that of the Cardinals de Rohan, 
Prince Bishops of Strasburg. 

An officer very courteously refused to allow me 
to enter the barrack. So I do not know whether, 
within the edifice, vestiges of the past have sur- 
vived its degradations, restorations, and altera- 
tions. Of the chateau we see today only two 
grand fagades decorated with pilasters, the balus- 
traded terraces rising at the edge of the Marne- 
Rhine canal, and a quincunx planted with great 
trees, the only remnant of the former garden 
(Note 11). But this is sufficient to recall to our 
imagination the magnificences, quite in the style 
of Versailles, which gave a French imprint to 
Alsatian taste before the wars of the Revolution 
and the Empire had thus impressed its heart. 

Around Saverne, the countryside is fresh, smil- 

78 



Marmoutier 79 



ing, and diversified. It is no longer the landscape 
of Upper Alsace, with its violent and admirable 
contrasts : the plain no longer comes, smooth as 
a great lake, to end at the edge of an abrupt slope ; 
the mountains cease to present a brusque and 
steep glacis, and the forest no longer resembles 
an army marching in serried ranks to the escalade 
of the crests. The plain is rolling, hollowed into 
wide valleys, and raised in little hills ; the moun- 
tains slope gently; at the moment of advancing 
to the assault, the forest leaves stragglers behind 
it, and these groups of trees form islands of ver- 
dure in the midst of the harvests. 

Marmoutier. — Here is the most ancient of 
the abbeys of Alsace ; here is also one of its most 
beautiful and strangest churches. The fagade is 
of the most virile and solid Romanesque. It is 
pierced by a low doorway with three arches. 
Between two octagonal towers rises a stout, 
square belfry. The nave has pointed arches. 
The choir was constructed in the eighteenth 
century, in a type of Gothic which makes us more 
indulgent to the Gothic of nineteenth century 
architects. (One often finds in the Alsatian 
churches these pointed arches of the time of 
Louis XV.) But this ill-conceived choir is orna- 
mented with the rarest, finest, most exquisite 



80 The Spell of Alsace 

wood carvings, which are decidedly eighteenth 
century and in its best style. What beautiful 
panels, carved with trophies composed of the 
attributes of the arts, of religion, and of poetry ! 
What adorable garlands of flowers and foliage! 
All around the choir, upon the entablature over 
these carvings, is a series of statuettes, represent- 
ing the games of children : each of these groups 
is a masterpiece of grace. I do not know what 
sculptor executed this marvelous interior. But 
I imagine that a Rohan became interested in the 
monks of Marmoutier and made them this royal 
gift. . . . Marmoutier! it is the name of the 
Abbey in Touraine where Louis de Rohan re- 
ceived from Louis XVI permission to retire and 
forget the frosts and melancholies of his holy 
office. 

Birckenwald. — The chateau is an enigma. 
The date of its construction is not in doubt; it 
is cut in the stone of the walls : 1562. We also 
know the name of the nobleman who built it : 
Nicolas Jacques dTngersheim. But where did 
this Alsatian get the idea of building a chateau 
which resembles no other in Alsace? 

Imagine a building of a single story, flanked 
with towers, whose irregular plan recalls in a 
striking fashion that of the chateaux of the pure 




PORTKAIT OF LOUIS XVI 



Birckenwald 81 



French Renaissance. But it is especially in the 
decoration that the resemblance is apparent. The 
doors and windows are framed with emblems, 
foliage and allegories quite like those which we 
see upon the walls of sixteenth century monu- 
ments in Touraine or in Normandy. Carved in 
the red sandstone of the Vosges, these ornaments 
assume a quite different appearance and the gar- 
lands which surround the enormous round win- 
dows of the chateau have a somewhat Germanic 
heaviness. . . . However, it would not be sur- 
prising if a French architect had come to Bircken- 
wald in 1562. 

In the seventeenth century the fief of Bircken- 
wald, which was an appanage of the monastery 
of Andlau, was given by the abbess to a certain 
Norman gentleman, Gabriel du Terrier, whom 
Louis XIII had named Governor of Saverne. 
This Norman must have found himself at home 
at Birckenwald ; and even if he did not recognize 
the French style of his dwelling, he must have 
experienced a certain pleasure in discovering out- 
side his windows a familiar landscape. In fact, 
by a strange coincidence, the site is marvelously 
adapted to the aspect of the chateau. Beyond a 
little winding river there is a great prairie rising 
in a gentle slope to a wood which bounds the 
distant horizon, so that we ask whence comes 



82 The Spell of Alsace 

this unexpected harmony between the architecture 
and its setting. 

Saint-Jean-des-Choux. — I asked permission 
to enter the rectory, where are preserved some 
beautiful tapestries of the fifteenth century, which 
formerly belonged to the monastery of Saint- 
Jean-des-Choux. The cure was absent. One of 
the sisters of the school opened the door of the 
presbytery for me, and in a very gentle voice, in 
the purest French, explained to me the subject of 
the tapestries. She described them at great 
length. Finally, she insisted on taking me into 
the church, made me admire the old wrought iron 
hinges of the great door, and led me into the little 
garden which has replaced the cemetery around 
the structure. There she showed me the gar- 
goyles of the apse, and pointed out, among clusters 
of poppies, the foundations of the cloister ; finally, 
she named for me all the villages scattered in the 
valley of the Zorn. ... I thanked her. "Do 
not thank me," she said simply. "Do not thank 
me" ; that means : I am satisfied with the oppor- 
tunity of speaking French for a quarter of an hour. 
And the holy daughter of Alsace returned to her 
schoolroom, where she taught German to the little 
Alsatians because such was the law. 



VII 

ALSACE IN 1903 

SOME travelers who visit Strasburg find 
there the ruins of an old Alsatian town 
and the evident prosperity of a great 
German city. They traverse with admiration the 
new quarters crowded with gorgeous palaces : the 
palace of the Emperor, the palace of the Delega- 
tion, the palace of the University, the palace of 
the Posts. Everywhere, in the facades of the 
buildings, as well as in the plan of the transformed 
city, they recognize the peculiar taste of modern 
Germany, its craze for new-antique, its mania 
for fresco painting, and especially its passion for 
the colossal. They visit the churches, like Saint 
Peter the Younger, motley with startling colors, 
lurid, masterpieces of the cockatoo style, and 
loaded with all kinds of imitations, even to counter- 
feit tombstones. They survey the overwhelming 
massiveness of banking-houses and of those pre- 
tentious department stores, which German archi- 
tects have exhausted their ingenuity in clumsily 
decorating with the most outlandish inventions of 

83 



84 The Spell of Alsace 

the modern style. They see old Strasburg me- 
thodically devastated by politics and speculation. 
They stop in the Place du Broglie, which had 
preserved its appearance of an old French square, 
and which is now marked, it also, with the Ger- 
man stamp, since they have erected there the 
strange monument in which the sculptor Hilde- 
brand has symbolized the Rhine by a trivial, 
clumsy, and hip-shot personage, doubtless in- 
spired by the figures of Boecklin, but whose 
incongruous posture excites the raillery of the 
Strasburgers. They notice that the signs of all 
the shops are written in German (the law for- 
bids French signs). They enter German beer 
gardens. They hear the loud and fiery speech 
of the conquerors. They take for resignation 
the silent reserve of the annexed. . . . Behind 
this German front, they do not discern the reality ; 
and they speak, or even write, grievous follies 
about the Germanization of Alsace-Lorraine. 

How easy, however, it is to discern this reality 
by traveling through the country and the small 
Alsatian towns ! In the course of these rambles 
I have already given you glimpses of it. But, 
before leaving Alsace, I wish to insist upon it. 

The Alsatians have given up the ferocious and 
revolutionary protestation, to which they gave 



Alsace in 1903 85 

vent during the years following the War of 1870. 
They loyally endeavor to accommodate themselves 
to a situation which is odious to them, but which 
they are unable to change. They do not turn 
toward the France of today, for they know that 
it is obstinately pacific. They have no illusions 
as to men and events beyond the Vosges. They 
have never believed in the theatrical speeches and 
the platform chauvinism by which some politi- 
cians formerly believed they could console their 
grief. They do not attach a very great impor- 
tance to the dreams of humanitarians who set 
their wits to work to discover the " pacific solu- 
tion/' They have confidence in the future; but 
they count only on time and events. So, as they 
wish, while waiting, to live, develop their activity, 
exercise their energy, and exploit their riches, 
they are naturally forced to make terms with 
those who govern them. 

Besides, since the law of dictatorship has been 
abrogated, the atmosphere has become more 
breathable in Alsace. The Prussian police has 
not willingly given up the privileges which the 
former legislation gave it, and it continues, ac- 
cording to its tradition, to worry suspects and to 
encourage informers, but it is no longer all- 
powerful. The press is still governed by com- 
plicated rules which render its liberty precarious : 



86 The Spell of Alsace 



fixed in principle by the laws of the Empire, its 
rights are restrained in practice by local police 
ordinances in regard to posting, distribution, sales 
in bookshops, and so forth . . ., and the old 
French laws have been kept in force : but every 
German citizen can today, without obtaining per- 
mission, found, in Alsace-Lorraine, a periodical in 
any language, even in French, and the only for- 
mality imposed upon him is the filing of a bond. 
As to the right of assembly, it is regulated by a 
French law of June 6, 1868. 

Alsace saw with joy the end of the reign of 
terror under which it lived for twenty years 
and has used the semi-liberty which was finally 
given it. Its vows and complaints then took a 
different tone. The relations between the con- 
querors and the conquered were less strained. 
The first were less tyrannical; the latter were 
less intractable. 

For five years the attitude of the Alsatians 
toward the Germans has been modified, but the 
attitude only. The depth of their hearts has not 
changed. 

Today, as yesterday, as always, the Alsatians 
do not wish to be German. They have witnessed 
the tremendous effort of Germany since 1871 ; 
they have seen close at hand the extraordinary 
development of its industry and its commerce; 



Alsace in 1903 87 

they have admired the spirit of enterprise of its 
traders, the spirit of order and of method of its 
administrators, the wisdom of its people, the 
strength of its army, and there were between- 
them and Germany too many bonds of relation- 
ship to allow them to remain insensible of the 
efforts of the scientists, writers, and artists of the 
Germanic race. . . . But, with a coolness which 
we have not always shown, we Frenchmen of 
France, they have not allowed themselves to be 
dazzled by this foreign prestige. Alsatians they 
are, Alsatians they will remain. 

Against the brutalities of the Prussian gen- 
darmes and against the scientific theories of the 
university professors, they stubbornly maintain 
their rights and their nationality. Among the 
peasants and the populace the religion of the 
past shows itself in a confused but irresistible 
instinct, which forces them to retain their old 
manners, their old customs, and their old houses. 
The educated men oppose to the doctors of Pan- 
germanism the history of the origins of Alsace, 
they ransack the tumuli of the aborigines, open 
the mortuaries of the Middle Ages, at Dambach, 
at Saverne, at Kaysersberg, obtain the expert 
testimony of scientists, and prove that through- 
out the ages, despite the invaders coming from 
everywhere, the same race has always populated 



88 The Spell of Alsace 

the region between the Rhine and the Vosges; 
that this race, as shown by the form of its round, 
wide, and high skull, belongs to the Celtic type, 
and has nothing in common with the Germans. 
They also invoke the antiquity of Alsatian cul- 
ture; they show the innumerable witnesses of it 
which litter the soil of the province, all these 
remnants of statues and of Gallo-Roman bas- 
reliefs, all these vestiges of the great Latin civiliza- 
tion which nourished in the plain of Alsace while 
the conquerors of today lived their life of savages 
in the marshes of the Vistula. 

All, workmen, peasants, scientists, wish to re- 
tain their traditions, their tastes, their culture, 
which are neither the traditions, the tastes, nor 
the culture of their masters. So wherever the 
Germans have installed themselves, two distinct 
societies have arisen, each with its own life, its 
promenades, its restaurants, and its associations. 
In Germany the army lives, in general, apart from 
the civil population; here, one would say that 
it camps in an enemy country. A few Alsatians 
have married German women. But infinitely 
rare are the Alsatian women who have married 
Germans : the women show themselves the most 
bitter in the protestation. There are Alsatians 
who have allied themselves with the Germans by 
interest; there are none who have done so from 



Alsace in 1903 89 

sympathy. This is the state of Alsace, thirty- 
three years after the conquest ! 

We are stupefied by this example of fidelity, 
unique in the history of peoples, especially when 
we remember that to form intellects and trans- 
form manners a modern state has at its disposal 
two powerful auxiliaries, the school and the army. 
Germany thought that the two together would 
overcome Alsatian persistence. She was deceived. 

In school the Alsatian child learns the German 
language and history. Never a word of French is 
spoken before him, and all the events of the past 
are presented to him in such a manner as to 
glorify the fatherland of today and to humiliate 
that of yesterday. The teachers are strictly 
supervised. But the family quickly effaces the 
imprint of the school. The mother forbids her 
child to sing at home the German songs which 
the teacher has taught him. The father, if he 
knows French, teaches it to his son. ... In 
1903, French was spoken as much as, and perhaps 
more than, it was spoken in 1870. If, perchance, 
we question a passer-by, and he can only speak the 
dialect, he immediately goes to find some one who 
knows French, and the first care of the latter is 
to apologize for the ignorance of his countryman. 
Among the questions asked of the inhabitants at 
each census is the following: "What is your 



90 The Spell of Alsace 

mother tongue?" To answer, " French," is to 
awaken the suspicion of the authorities ; so many 
of the annexed prefer to falsify the statistics and 
live undisturbed. Nevertheless, in the census of 
1895, 159,732 persons declared that French was 
their mother tongue. In 1900, this number rose 
to 198,173. Figures may lie; but I doubt that 
anyone can draw from this an argument to prove 
the Germanization of Alsace (Note 12). 

In transforming the Alsatian, Prussian military 
discipline is no more efficacious than its instruction 
in school. The one-year volunteers, free to choose 
their garrison, fulfill their service in their own prov- 
ince, that is to say in their home surroundings, near 
their families and their friends. As to the recruits, 
they are sent to Prussia. They are at the age 
when man is most submissive to the law of imita- 
tion. The Alsatian, therefore, returns from the 
barracks with the carriage of a German soldier, 
shoulders held back, abdomen flat, step jerky, hair 
smooth and parted absolutely in the middle, mus- 
tache waxed, and handles his cane like a Prussian. 
But this metamorphosis does not last long. His 
country takes back its man. A year later, body 
and soul have become Alsatian ; and in this peas- 
ant with slow, solid, and free step whom we meet 
on summer Sundays upon the roads of the Vosges, 
wearing a silk hat, his black overcoat folded over 



Alsace in 1903 91 

his arm, it is impossible to recognize a Prussian 
infantryman. 

Statistics, the confidences of the annexed popu- 
lation, their way of living, their words and their 
actions, are still only feeble indications of the 
antipathy which separates the Alsatians from 
Germany. The great proof is this inescapable 
fact that since 1873, the latest date for choice of 
citizenship, emigration has not ceased. From 1871 
to 1890, 220,000 deserters crossed the frontier to 
avoid serving in the German army ; from 1890 to 
1900, there were each year from 4,000 to 5,000 ; 
since 1900 from 3,000 to 4,000. Nothing discour- 
ages them, neither the thought that they leave their 
homes forever, nor the prospect of being, as soon 
as they arrive in France, forced into the Foreign 
Legion, among the deserters of all countries; for 
even if, since 1889, the law permits young Alsa- 
tians to recover French citizenship by a simple 
declaration, and to enter directly either into our 
regiments or into our military schools, this law 
is evaded, and, " under pretext that the young 
volunteers do not bring all the necessary and re- 
quired papers, the military officials do not hesitate 
to incorporate them in the Foreign Legion, and to 
send them to die prematurely in the colonies, 
when they might form such an excellent nucleus 
of professional soldiers in our national army." 



92 The Spell of Alsace 

(Letter of M. H. Keller, Ex-deputy of the Haut- 
Rhin, in the Libre Parole, March 4, 1902.) 

By this constant exodus, the annexed show that 
they cannot accept German sovereignty (Note 13). 

But is this emigration without peril for the 
existence of Alsatian nationality? The Alsatians 
today ask themselves this question with anxiety. 
I have already related the apprehensions of the 
people of Mulhouse, who foresee the day when 
their great factories will lack men. And this is 
not the only danger. Since 1871, 450,000 Al- 
satians and Lorrainers have abandoned their 
country. Those who remain can neither be in- 
timidated nor seduced; but, becoming each day 
less numerous, they feel that their strength of 
resistance decreases. And 350,000 Germans have 
taken the place of the emigrants ; 350,000 out of 
a population of 1,700,000! (Note 14.) So the 
"good Alsatians" now try to keep their country- 
men at home. The password which they transmit 
among themselves is no longer to depart, but to 
fight on the spot, to keep Alsace Alsatian. 

In the mind of these men there is no question 
either of violence or of revolt or of conspiracy. 
But they intend to guard their soil and their 
traditions. To show you what they wish and 
what they hope, I will insert a few lines drawn 
from the prospectus of a periodical which a group 



Alsace in 1903 93 

of young Alsatians founded at Strasburg in 1898, 
the Revue Alsacienne illustree (Note 15) : 

" There is a physical and moral well-being which 
results from plunging into one's natural sur- 
roundings. N 

"In fact, we all feel what we wish to express 
when we define one of ourselves by saying : ' He 
is an old Alsatian! He is a true type of old 
Alsace ! ' And we feel equally that one of our 
compatriots is lost to us if we must say of him, 
shaking our heads : ' He is no longer an Alsatian ! ' 

"Among all Alsatians this innate sentiment of 
ancestral piety and attachment to the soil exists, 
but it is not enough to remain in this sentimental 
phase in thinking about Alsace : it is necessary 
that our reasons for loving our native land and our 
dead should be tangible to us, and it is necessary 
that we should understand in what way we can best 
free, maintain, and prolong Alsatian tradition. 

"... We should wish especially that, by being 
better informed about his nationality, every son 
of Alsace might contribute more surely to enrich 
it. 

"For the assertion that a thing is good and true 
must always be proved by an answer to this 
question : ' In what respect is this thing good and 
true?' 

"Things are good or true for Alsatians only if 



94 The Spell of Alsace 

they are the development of an Alsatian germ. 
At least, if they are not the fruit of our race, they 
must accept the conditions of our moral climate ; 
yes, let them modify themselves according to the 
aspect, according to the climate, there is no other 
word, which centuries of Alsatian civilization have 
made for us." 

We recognize here some of the formulas dear to 
M. Maurice Barres. They express marvelously 
the desire of those who have taken root in Alsace. 

To thus defend the soul and the soil of their 
country, the Alsatians must be closely united. 
Up to the present time nothing had troubled 
their union. They had witnessed all the vicissi- 
tudes through which France has gone, in its 
political miseries, in its parliamentary scandals, 
without such a spectacle ever rendering less 
odious to them their quality of German citizens. 
Protestants, Catholics, Liberals, all were united 
in placing the cause of Alsace before party in- 
terests. The Dreyfus affair had divided them 
and terrible dissensions had broken out between 
families, sects, and groups, just as in France, but 
the " great question" had been reserved. " Be- 
sides," said an Alsatian to me, "this was for us 
another way of living French life." Within a 
year, there have appeared grave signs that the 
union is breaking ; the fasces begin to separate. 



Alsace in 1903 95 



The anti-clerical policy of the French ministry 
has caused terrible revulsions beyond the Vosges. 
It has revolted the conscience of the Catholic 
priests, who were yesterday the most ardent of 
the protesters. 

On the other hand, the Association of Alsatian 
Students of the University of Strasburg holds a 
banquet every year : there are no speeches ; but, 
at the end of the dinner, the president is accus- 
tomed to drink to free Alsace, using the traditional 
formula; then the guests form a procession in 
single file, and bareheaded, in the deepest silence, 
march three times around the statue of Kle"ber. 
This year, however, for the habitual toast the 
president substituted this: "To liberal Alsace!" 

Such are the germs of discord which the anti- 
clericals of France have thrown among a people 
which until recently was so profoundly united 
by common experiences and hopes. . . . And 
what increases still more the uneasiness of the 
"good Alsatians" is the skill with which the 
German government profited by the event. In 
these circumstances the Prussian officials who ad- 
minister the annexed provinces might have been 
much embarrassed : they are Protestants, that is, 
ill-disposed to the Catholic clergy, and they are 
faithful to the tradition of Bismarck, that is to 
say, ill-prepared to practice conciliation. But 



96 The Spell of Alsace 

without caring for their astonishment or their 
prejudices, Wilhelm II here played his own 
politics over their heads; he endeavored to se- 
duce his opponents and weaken their resistance. 
That is why the little seminary of Zillisheim, 
which passed for a nursery of protesters, has un- 
expectedly just received the right to name one- 
year volunteers, a privilege reserved for govern- 
ment schools. 

For the first time, the national sentiment of 
Alsace has wavered. It is France and France 
alone which is responsible for it, and she must 
be the last to complain of it. It is foolish, I 
know, to hope that considerations of this kind can 
touch our politicians. The Alsatians who have 
told me their anxieties depend, to reestablish the 
union, solely upon the good sense of their country- 
men. After thirty years of heroism, a people 
cannot deny a cause which has cost it so many 
sacrifices and so many tears. 

Perhaps you will accuse me of having seen 
Alsace with biased eyes, with French eyes. . . . 
I ask only that you will be kind enough to look 
at a pamphlet which recently appeared, in which 
a Swede, Dr. Anton Nystrom, has collected 
articles which he published in a Swedish news- 
paper (Note 16). This foreigner traversed Alsace, 
consulted official publications, and questioned Ger- 



Alsace in 1903 97 

mans and Alsatians, and here is the conclusion of 
his investigation: "The conflict is certainly not 
in a bitter state. But it is none the less evident 
that the majority of the annexed people does not 
believe in the least that it is reunited to the bosom 
of its national family, but aspires, on the con- 
trary, to return to France, which it considers as 
its true fatherland." 

An Alsatian urged me not to leave Alsace with- 
out going to Neuwiller. "This place," he said 
to me, "synthesizes the whole past of Alsace: 
castle, church, ancient abbey, town wall, historic 
cemeteries, ancient mansions, fertile plain, and 
wooded hill : all are united there/' And he him- 
self volunteered to act as my guide. With him, 
I have seen the church whose Romanesque choir, 
Gothic nave, and eighteenth-century fagade sum- 
marize the history of religious architecture in 
Alsace ; I have seen the great prairies and the 
charming houses, the squares and the fountains 
of Neuwiller. With him I have visited the flower- 
grown cemetery, at the foot of the hill crowned 
with the ruins of the Castle of Herrenstein, and I 
have read the inscriptions on its tombs. 

This cemetery is a necropolis of French soldiers. 
In its midst, upon a pedestal ornamented with a 
medallion and military emblems, rises a marble 



98 The Spell of Alsace 

column surmounted by an urn : it is the tomb of 
Marshal Clarke, Duke of Feltre, Count of Hune- 
bourg. We read there: " Always faithful to 
honor and duty, he rose by merit alone to high 
employ, and there distinguished himself by his 
zeal and his integrity; he was a good father, a 
good husband, a good friend ; after having sup- 
ported with courage and truly Christian resigna- 
tion the sorrows of a long and cruel malady, etc." 
This commonplace and colorless epitaph suffi- 
ciently shows the embarrassment of those who 
had to prepare it, in the reign of Louis XVIII : 
Clarke's career had been so varied ! 

I prefer the epitaph of Charles Bernard Anni- 
bal, Baron of Reisenbach, retired Colonel of In- 
fantry, deceased in 1861, and interred under a 
Gothic pinnacle. It is thus conceived : "Wagram, 
Moscowa, Moscow, Krasnoe, Llitzen, Bautzen, 
Jauer, Leipzig, Hanau, Champaubert, Vauchamps, 
Montmirail, Fere-Champenoise, Paris, Essonnes. 
— Wars of Spain (1825) and of Algeria (1836- 
1837)." 

A pile of blocks of granite, upon which are 
placed a cross, a howitzer, cannon balls, arms, 
and the Legion of Honor, marks the sepulcher 
of Baron Dorsner, Lieutenant General of Artillery. 

Beyond, under a tombstone sculptured with 
epaulettes, laurels, swords, and a cross, rests 



Alsace in 1903 99 

Augustin Pradal, General of Artillery, Commander 
of the Legion of Honor. . . . And here are also 
the mausoleums of Colonel de Mandeville, of the 
Chevalier Leopold Elisee Scherb, Orderly Officer 
of the Emperor, of Simon Dominique Stockle, 
First Lieutenant of Light Infantry. . . . 

When I had finished copying some of these 
inscriptions, my companion said to me: " To- 
day, in 1903, there are still in France a hundred 
and forty Alsatian generals, either active or re- 
tired!" 

We left the cemetery. I asked, "And how 
many Alsatians are there among the officers of 
Germany?" 

" Three. . . . Listen if you will, to the story 
of one of these three officers; it will teach you 
what is meant among us by the word Germaniza- 
tion. He is a Prussian sub-lieutenant. His 
grandfather served under the first Napoleon. 
His father was a landed proprietor. Ruined by 
dissipation and the depreciation of landed prop- 
erty which followed the annexation, he offered 
his services to the German government and ob- 
tained a position ; as the salary was too small he 
solicited another, better paid. They promised it 
to him, but on condition that the grandson of the 
general of the Empire should become an officer in 
the German army. He accepted. The young 



100 The Spell of Alsace 

man endorsed the bargain. . . . He rarely speaks 
German, which he scarcely knows. To hear him 
speak, and especially to see his bearing, one would 
take him for a young French sub-lieutenant. . . . 
One day his step-sister became engaged to a young 
Alsatian, and the engagement was announced at 
a picnic. The attendance was large, and the 
dinner was served on the lawn. After the dinner 
the young men amused themselves with athletics 
and wrestling. The sub-lieutenant wrestled with 
his future brother-in-law, and was thrown. Then 
he was seen to become pale with anger under his 
adversary's knee, and the spectators were stupefied 
to hear him, a German officer, spit out in the face 
of his adversary : ' Filthy Prussian ! ' He could 
not think of a worse outrage : it was the cry of 
his race which rose to his lips. . . . They changed 
his garrison. . . . But you understand why I 
have brought you to visit the dead who sleep in 
the cemetery of Neu wilier. It is they who forbid 
us to be Germans." 



VIII 
WISSEMBOURG 

THERE are melancholy little cities whose 
destiny has been ruined by the chances of 
history. We pity their disgrace, but love 
their far-away air and their thoughtful appearance. 
In them, as in a sleeping pool which ripples under 
a passing breeze, we see the images of the past 
shudder and tremble. 

Wissembourg is one of these desolate and charm- 
ing places. The living muffle the sound of their 
voices and their footsteps in order not to put to 
flight its ghostly inhabitants. 

It was formerly one of the most powerful abbeys 
of Alsace ; it was sovereign of a vast canton, free 
of all feudal service, and rich in prairies, forests 
and vineyards ; it practiced the right of coinage ; 
its monks were masters of a school celebrated 
throughout the Rhine country; its abbot bore 
the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. . . . 
Now, of the illustrious abbey, there remain only 
the admirable church and the galleries of a delicate 

cloister. 

101 



102 The Spell of Alsace 

Wissembourg was also a place of war. In the 
Middle Ages a town rose about the monastery, a 
free town which girded itself with towers and 
ramparts to defend its freedom against the 
mercenaries of the Elector Palatine, the bands of 
the religious wars, and the peasants in revolt. 
Later, the crumbling defences, which had ill 
protected the place against the calamities of the 
Thirty Years War, were renewed by the French : 
in the eighteenth century the latter constructed 
modern fortifications in the style of Vauban. 
Everyone knows what happened August 4, 1870. 
. . . Today, Wissembourg is dismantled : toward 
the south the ramparts form a beautiful terrace 
completely covered with vines, and the ditch 
is but a long orchard; toward the north tall 
trees have grown on the slopes of the talus and 
overarch a cool promenade dominated here by a 
low squat tower, yonder by the ruins of a bastion ; 
the line of the old fortifications thus forms a 
smiling crown of verdure around the poor, silent, 
ruined town. 

Its downfall began far back in the sixteenth 
century. But it was annexation to Germany 
which gave Wissembourg this touching aspect of 
desolation. In 1870, the little sub-prefecture still 
lived that peculiar life of frontier towns, animated 
by the movement of soldiers, travelers, and mer- 



Wissembourg 103 



chants. The freshness of its fields, the bouquet of 
its wines, the charm of its old homes, attracted 
and retained old folks desirous of living in retire- 
ment. When it became German it was suddenly 
depopulated. No city of Alsace was more closely 
bound to the past of military France. For a 
century its sons had been soldiers. (Even today 
there are, in our armies, more than fifty superior 
officers born in Wissembourg.) All the bourgeois 
houses emptied. A few Germans replaced the 
exiles. But, after thirty-four years, the city still 
seems to be in mourning for its vanished children. 
And yet, nowhere did the conqueror show as 
much prudence as at Wissembourg. During the 
ten years after the conquest, Kreisdirector 
Stichaner endeavored to treat gently and humanely 
the town for which he had acquired a true affection. 
He tempered the rigorous orders which he received 
from Berlin, and tried to disarm hate by wise 
administration. He loved Wissembourg, its his- 
tory and its memories, and he knew how to flatter 
Alsatian pride. Of all the German functionaries 
who reigned over the unfortunate province, he is 
perhaps the only one whose memory has not 
remained odious to the people of Alsace. They 
have erected a monument to him at the gate of 
the city, and an old citizen of Wissembourg said 
to me, before Stichaner's medallion: "This man 



104 The Spell of Alsace 

was truly our friend. ..." But if the presence 
of this pitiful and benevolent man rendered Prus- 
sian domination less crushing for those who re- 
mained at home, it did not bring back to their 
fatherland those who had left it forever. 

How cruel departure must have seemed to these 
exiles ! How they must have loved the touching 
beauty of their town, its clean and picturesque 
streets, its magnificent abbey, its old dwellings, 
its pretty orchards, its elegant gables! 

We discover again in Wissembourg something 
of the grace of those little Flemish cities, where 
happy accidents of light and season compose, 
for the joy of the eye, diverse and charming pic- 
tures : the towers of the church arise between 
two trees or between two pointed gables; the 
lawns and foliage of the old ramparts are framed 
at the end of a narrow street, between two great 
slopes of tile ; the branches of a garden swing above 
a high wall of red sandstone ; the Lauter traverses 
the town in many curves, here bathing the feet 
of the houses, there restrained by microscopic 
wharves. 

The beautiful church of Saint Peter and Saint 
Paul, the Cathedral, as they call it at Wissem- 
bourg, is flanked by a grand and robust Roman- 
esque tower. The choir and the transept of the 



Wissembourg 105 



thirteenth century and the nave of perhaps a 
somewhat later period, are of a pure, delicate, 
and sober pointed style. Nevertheless, the stone 
of the Vosges has an indescribably grave and 
tragic quality, which appears to be better adapted 
to the creations of Romanesque than of Gothic 
art. On the walls of the church were discovered, 
some forty years ago, concealed by a layer of 
whitewash, frescos whose age seems uncertain. 
Their coarse, almost barbaric design grows fainter 
day by day ; but, in the haze which now envelops 
these remains, we may still discover naive and 
moving countenances. Above the crossing of the 
transept rises a tower whose spire perished in the 
seventeenth century; it has been reconstructed 
and covered with slate, without noting that this 
gray tower would, like a false note, trouble the 
marvelous harmony of dull red roofs which sur- 
rounds the church on all sides. 

Here and there are old, very old houses, A 
ruined building still shows fine pointed arches. 
Why not ? It is a beautiful palace of the sixteenth 
century, the Vogelsberger mansion. We find also 
a great number of those pretty Alsatian houses, 
garlanded with vines, whose exterior galleries are 
framed of carved beams, and whose spiral stone 
staircases are sheltered by graceful turrets. Not 
a house but has written on the lintel of its door 



106 The Spell of Alsace 

the date of its construction, and the town thus 
tells the passer-by its history. . . . 

It is necessary to seek these precious remnants 
of the Alsatian Renaissance in secluded streets. 
Wissembourg was almost entirely rebuilt in the 
eighteenth century, and it is this which gives it an 
unforgetable character. Of all the cities of Alsace, 
this bears more than any other the imprint of 
French taste. On the great square and in the 
main street are rows of little fagades, decorated 
with masks and escutcheons in the style of Louis 
XV. The Hotel de Ville, built in 1741, served as a 
model to the citizens. But look at the homes 
which were then built, and in the sobriety of the 
ornaments, in the homely expression of certain 
sculptures, you will recognize with what good 
sense and simplicity these Alsatians accommo- 
dated the fancies of fashion to the adornment of 
their little city. Ah ! here we are far away from 
Germanic rococo. 

How pleasing is this decoration of Wissembourg ! 
What pleasant fagades ! What lovable sculp- 
tures ! What admirable ironwork at the windows, 
on the doors, about the outside stairs ! 

Nowhere in France can we find a town which has 
so well preserved the externals of the eighteenth 
century. We are happy — and sad — to dis- 
cover such a spectacle in the midst of Alsace. But 




PORTRAIT OF STANISLAS LESZCZYNSKI 



Wissembourg 107 



this sadness, here, is at the bottom of all our 
admirations ! 

At Wissembourg occurred the most dramatic 
scene of the extraordinary romance of Stanislas 
Leszczynski. Here it was that this king of Poland 
found refuge one day, exiled from his kingdom, 
exiled from the principality of Deux-Ponts, 
dragging with him his family and the remnants 
of his court. As his goods had been confiscated, 
he lived on the alms of France and the Duke of 
Lorraine. He had obtained from the Regent per- 
mission to settle in one of the towns of the adminis- 
tration of Alsace, and had chosen Wissembourg. 
Smoking his pipe, he dreamed ambitious dreams, 
and awaited the return of fortune : he was a 
chivalrous, chimerical, and childish soul. These 
remembrances pursue me while I wander about 
the town whose melancholy agrees so well with 
this history of a king in exile. I wish to see the 
house where Stanislas lived, and whence "La 
Polonaise" departed to become queen of France. 

This house is still standing. It belonged to a 
certain Weber, who gave it up to the King of 
Poland. Since then it has been altered and en- 
larged, and has often changed its use. During 
the French Revolution Freemasons held their 
lodges there. Later it was used as a college. Now 



108 The Spell of Alsace 

it is the hospital of Wissembourg. But the 
building has retained its former appearance, its 
high tiled roof, and its beautiful staircase with 
wooden balustrades. 

While ascending this staircase I noticed the date 
engraved upon the wall : 1722. It was three years 
before that when Stanislas came to Wissembourg. 
Was the house then reconstructed while he in- 
habited it ? Or did Stanislas, before coming here, 
live elsewhere? Others may answer this little 
problem. What remains certain is that in 1725, at 
the decisive hour of their destiny, the king and 
his daughter lived within these walls. 

It was here that Stanislas had lodged his wife, 
Catherine Opalinska, his old mother, Anne 
Jablonowska, Count Tarlo, his ambassador at 
foreign courts, Baron de Meszczeck, his marshal of 
the palace, WimpfT, his first gentleman of the 
bedchamber, his intimate secretary Biber, the five 
officers who had remained faithful to him, and 
the three maids of honor of the queen. By 
doubling up a little, this modest court could live 
in the house of Weber. 

The chambers of the upper floor are today occu- 
pied by invalids' beds. The last of all, which, 
according to a tradition, served as a boudoir for 
Marie Leszczynska, is now the apartment of the 
nuns. Without intending it, without knowing it 



Wissembourg 109 



perhaps, they have thus rendered suitable homage 
to the memory of the pious and charitable princess. 

I crossed the garden in the hope of discovering 
there some trace of the past. In the midst of a 
little grove, formed by old trees and carpeted 
with ivy, we see a stone table. In the orchard a 
little fountain gushes from a few stones, where 
may still be distinguished sculptured lions' heads. 
An inscription, now illegible, has left a few traces 
on a wall. Table, sculptures, inscription, do they 
date from the eighteenth century? No one 
knows; no one here remembers anything about 
the Polish exiles : not a relic. But the essence 
of the scene has not changed : it is the same home, 
it is the same garden, it is the same light, it is the 
same sadness ; this is enough to revive the memory 
of the dead. 

A score of writers have told the story of the 
little princess, who, though neither rich nor 
beautiful, left her hovel in Alsace to marry the 
greatest king of the world (Note 17). But no one 
who has not seen the house, the orchard, and the 
grove of Wissembourg will ever taste all the 
charm and all the ironies of this singular adventure. 

Poor Stanislas paced this little garden a thou- 
sand times, dreaming of his lost throne and of the 
poverty of his family. To tell the truth, he was 
well rid of the crown of Poland; the important 



110 The Spell of Alsace 



thing for him and his court was not to die of 
hunger. Tp emerge from misery but a single way 
remained open to him: to marry his daughter 
well. But if his dignity of former sovereignty 
forbade him certain misalliances, his poverty 
frightened away rich wooers. His friend, Che- 
valier de Vauchoux, brought him one day from 
Paris the unexpected news that M. le Due was 
thinking of remarrying, that his attention had 
been attracted to Marie Leszczynska, and that 
Madame de Prie was favorable to this project. 
Stanislas experienced an inexpressible joy. He 
was naif, not sufficiently so, however, to be 
ignorant that his daughter was the plaything of 
an ignoble intrigue, that Madame de Prie was the 
mistress of the Duke of Bourbon, and that she 
accepted this marriage with the idea that her 
empire could not be threatened by a wife who was 
poor, religious, without energy, and without 
accomplishments. The poor king set his wits to 
work to retain the precious friendship of the 
marchioness; he corresponded incessantly with 
his friend de Vauchoux (Note 18), a zealous inter- 
mediary, and pressed him to induce the duke to 
commit himself publicly ; for he awaited anxiously 
the moment when he could offer his creditors the 
indorsement of his son-in-law. . . . 

In the little chamber where today are ranged the 



Portrait of Marie Leszczynska 

Photogravure from the Painting by Roujat 






Wissembourg ill 



white cots of the Sisters of Saint Vincent de Paul, 
Marie, indifferent to the calculations of her father, 
waited, praying, and embroidering church dra- 
peries, until Providence should manifest its will. 
She was a graceful and lively young girl, slender 
of figure, easy of carriage, with a fresh and highly 
colored complexion; but her eyes were irregular, 
her features heavy and plain. She was learned 
and witty, but especially she was good, com- 
passionate, and generous. She knew that she was 
not mistress of her destiny, and prepared to become 
Duchess of Bourbon. She had already seen a 
Parisian artist, commissioned to paint her por- 
trait, mysteriously arrive at Wissembourg : it 
was the prelude to the engagement. . . . Three 
weeks later her father entered her room, in- 
toxicated with joy, crying: "My daughter, fall 
on your knees and thank God!" At first she 
believed that Poland had just recalled its king. 
But Stanislas answered her: " Heaven is even 
more favorable to us : you are Queen of France !" 
Queen of France ! To understand the dazzling 
greatness of this change of scene, we must have 
before our eyes the little garden of the Leszczyn- 
skis, the ten trees of their grove, and the dozen 
windows of their fagade. This was what Marie 
was going to leave for Versailles, and Stanislas for 
Chambord. . . . Queen of France! We must 



112 The Spell of Alsace 

imagine what these words expressed of glory and 
splendor for these miserable and needy Poles, 
exiles in the depth of Alsace! We must picture 
their dreams, their hopes, their worries, and their 
feverish anxieties, for, until the marriage had 
been announced by the king himself, they had 
everything to fear : the chances of politics, the in- 
ventions of slanderers, the intrigues of the Elector 
of Saxony, who reigned in Poland and must fear a 
rival rendered powerful by alliance with France. 
Brief alarms. Madame de Prie remained faith- 
ful to Stanislas ; she would willingly have married 
her lover to Marie Leszczynska, but the second 
combination pleased her still more; she was 
choosing a queen who would be her creature. The 
report was spread that the Polish princess was 
afflicted with the falling sickness ; the surgeon Du 
Phenix came secretly to Wissembourg, and his 
report stilled the slander. Finally, the police 
foiled an attempt to poison Stanislas. He also 
authorized his friends to declare in his name that 
he made no further pretensions to the throne of 
Poland, and that he would esteem himself a 
hundred thousand times happier if he could end 
his days in France. Finally, May 27, at his 
petit lever, Louis XV announced to the court "that 
he would marry the only daughter of Stanislas 
Leszczynski, Count of Lesno, formerly Starost of 



Wissembourg 113 



Adelnau, then Palatine of Posnania, and finally 
elected King of Poland in the month of July, 
1704, and of Catherine Opalinski, daughter of the 
Castellan of Posnania. ..." They breathed at 
Wissembourg : the destinies were fixed. 

There was nothing more to do but to dress the 
bride and arrange the ceremony. The retreat of 
Wissembourg is still a perfect frame effectively to 
set off the picture of these glorious and childish 
preparations. 

To name the household of the queen was the 
affair of Versailles; to designate her confessor 
was the affair of the ministry; but it was im- 
possible to ignore the princess in preparing the 
finery in which she was going to present herself 
to her subjects and her king. The faithful de 
Vauchoux was charged with this mission. M. le 
Due begged him to send him one of the shoes of 
Marie Leszczynska, a pair of her gloves, and the 
length of her skirt. After having informed M. le 
Due upon the " sentiments of the Princess Marie 
in the matter of religion," the chevalier adds this 
postscript : "I send to Your Most Serene Highness 
only a slipper of the princess, not being able to 
send you a shoe, as you ordered me, since she 
uses them only for dancing and those that she has 
would make but indifferent patterns. She believes 
that a slipper may serve. Your Most Serene 



114 The Spell of Alsace 

Highness will find the gloves and the length of 
the skirt as she desires it." The length of the 
skirt ! What costumer today would content him- 
self with such a sketchy measurement to dress a 
queen ! 

While the slipper and the gloves traveled from 
Wissembourg to Strasburg, and from Strasburg to 
Paris, Stanislas got ready to appear like a king. 
He had pawned with a Frankfort Jew a few 
jewels, remnants of the royal fortune. Out of 
friendship and to oblige the future father-in-law 
of Louis XV, Marshal du Bourg, Governor of 
Strasburg, advanced him the sum required to 
redeem them. Then it was necessary to gather 
carriages, to form the semblance of a court, and 
to find six pages. The poor king had only two. 
He finally found one at Wissembourg and the 
Marshal furnished him the other three. 

Thus scantily equipped, the exiles were able to 
leave Wissembourg. On July 4 they entered 
Strasburg at six o'clock in the evening; the 
musketeers of Parabere and of Pardaillan escorted 
them; the cannon roared in honor of Marie 
Leszczynska, who, six weeks later, became the 
wife of Louis XV. 

One day Stanislas wrote to his friend Marshal 
du Bourg: "I always sigh for Alsace, which you 
made so agreeable to me that I shall regret it 










PORTRAIT OF LOUIS XV 



Wissembourg 115 



all my life." He was sincere. He was not made 
for the trade of kingship. If the pension which 
France had promised him had been paid him less 
irregularly, he would have tasted an unmixed 
pleasure in cultivating his garden at Wissembourg. 
As to Marie Leszczynska, perhaps she also 
regretted her days of exile, her slippers, her con- 
fessor, her poor, the care-free gaiety of her father, 
the cordial smiles of the good Alsatians, and the 
old church of Wissembourg, where each day she 
remained for hours on her knees (Note 19). 



IX 

AN EXCURSION IN THE SURROUNDINGS 
OF STRASBURG. — THE ALSATIAN TRA- 
DITION 

ON a fine afternoon of September, under a 
pallid, azure sky, which well accords with 
the pensive grace of Alsace, I have come 
to Obermodern, a village in the valley of the Moder, 
a dozen leagues north of Strasburg. An Alsatian 
who knows and loves his country has asserted 
to me that I will see in these parts the most 
beautiful specimens of rustic architecture to be 
found in Alsace, and has himself guided me from 
village to village, telling me, as our wanderings 
gave occasion, the history of the houses and the 
life of those who inhabit them. We have visited 
Obermodern, Zutzendorf, Schalkendorf, Bues- 
willer, Ettendorf, scattered in a beautiful country, 
which, while it is no longer mountainous, is not 
yet plain, and seems like a disordered sea of long 
undulations and wide valleys, a rich and happy 
country, but which because of its richness seems 
made for passages and displays at arms. Like 

116 



The Alsatian Tradition 117 

all the fertile regions of Alsace it has been twenty 
times swept by war. 

With their cowls of tiles and their garlands of 
vines, all these charming villages have the same 
appearance, the same air of ease and quiet 
happiness, the same smile of welcome. A few 
indications, either in the plan or in the ornamenta- 
tion of the houses, seem, however, to reveal that 
each of them has desired to retain its individuality : 
popular tradition is strong only if it is diverse and 
infinitely ramified ; the sap of Alsace mounts 
through a thousand roots. We can, in passing, 
divine these differences, but I have some doubt as 
to expressing them in words. 

These contrasts might be more vivid and strik- 
ing, for the faces of men are more expressive than 
the fronts of their homes. In each of the villages 
which I have visited I have seen the same types 
and the same costumes : everywhere, under 
the large coques of black ribbon, the same clear, 
limpid and speaking eyes ; everywhere fine old 
men, dry and robust, with glances of malice or of 
kindness, hands in pockets, with short jackets, 
their gait rolling and deliberate because of their 
wooden shoes; everywhere adorable kiddies, 
with round, fresh faces expanded in great, silent 
smiles ; everywhere the same atmosphere of cordial 
friendship. At Obermodern, at Schalkendorf, at 



118 The Spell of Alsace 

Bueswiller, this good nature is mingled with an 
indescribable graveness and reserve. But sud- 
denly, on entering Ettendorf — which is only 
half a league from Bueswiller — we are astonished 
to find the rhythm of gestures, actions, and words 
more free and more familiar. Under the black 
coques the eyes speak a more ardent language; 
around the wells and the fountains we hear louder 
talking ; the children's wooden shoes clatter more 
loudly on the pavement of the streets; here are 
still the same people, but less proud and more 
kindly, with brighter eyes behind their glances. 
Whence comes this change? I ask, and the only 
explanation which anyone can give me — it 
satisfies me — is that Obermodern, Schalkendorf 
and Bueswiller are absolutely Lutheran villages, 
while at Ettendorf the whole population is 
Catholic . But how does it happen that two villages 
so near together belong to different religions ? 

Such a peculiarity is not rare in Alsace, and 
there is always a historical reason for it. Be- 
tween Ettendorf and Bueswiller passed, before the 
Revolution, the frontier of the little principality 
of Hanau-Lichtenberg. In 1570, Philippe V, 
Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg, established the 
Reformation in his territories. The principality 
remained independent, even after the French 
occupation, even into the eighteenth century, 



The Alsatian Tradition 119 

when it had passed under the rule of the Prince 
of Hesse-Darmstadt. More than a century ago 
the political frontier was effaced, but the religious 
frontier has not disappeared. A deplorable victim 
of the quarrels of Europe, Alsace has never ceased 
to live its own history, as one recognizes at every 
step upon this soil of misfortune and fidelity. 

While crossing this little canton of Lower Alsace, 
I have come across more than one pretty picture : 
a wide street where in front of all the mansions is 
spread out, like a carpet of faded green, the hop 
harvest, which in drying spreads throughout the 
village its strong and bitter odor ; — on the slope 
of a hill, before the door of his hut of beaten earth, 
the gooseherd of Schalkendorf governing his 
immense flock with his long wand ; — the great 
court of a farm, where German artillerymen on 
manoeuvre scrub and polish, while upon the wall a 
graffito of forty years ago represents a little 
French soldier with the tight-waisted frock and 
the high shako of the soldiers of the Second 
Empire ; — at Ettendorf the vesper parade, the 
slow march of women and girls, advancing in a 
line, holding each other by the hand, laughing and 
chattering, under the great wings of their head 
dresses, shaken by the breeze. . . . But I have 
not lost sight of the object of my travels. I came 



120 The Spell of Alsace 



here to know the house of the Alsatian peasant 
and I would like to describe it, — without dwelling 
on the slight differences which we can observe 
between one village and the next. Where does 
man reveal more clearly his character, his taste, 
and his spirit than in the appearance and the 
furnishing of his home ? 

The farmhouse presents to the village street its 
high gables, made gay by the whiteness of rough- 
cast plaster and the variations of the framing, 
overhung by the wide projection of the tile roof. 
The roof seems to incline its rooftree and lift up 
its copings with a graceful movement, to shelter 
the walls from sun and rain. Under this shelter 
nest wooden galleries, whose balustrades bear 
witness to the age of the house ; when thin and 
spindle-shaped, they are the last witnesses of the 
Gothic period ; if more stocky and quadrangular 
in form, they date from the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries Elsewhere the galleries have 
disappeared, and simple pent-roofs protect the 
windows of each story Everywhere the grapes 
run over the walls 

Beside this building a great carriage gate, formed 
by a stone arch and closed by wide valves, gives 
access to the court. Farther on is a small door 
surmounted by a transom, guarded by four 
balusters. Almost always a stone escutcheon with 



The Alsatian Tradition 121 

a date and attributes ornaments the principal 
entrance. Sometimes a laborer and his plough 
have been carved over the lintel of the little gate. 
Sometimes, upon the pilasters of the portal, there 
has been sculptured a simple decoration composed 
of turnsole flowers, tobacco leaves, and hop vines, 
the flora of the neighboring country. When we 
penetrate into the court of the farm, we are 
struck by a certain air of order and of grandeur. 
In a description of France published in 1835, I 
find this judgment on the peasants of the Bas- 
Rhin : "The peasant rises with the sun and works 
all day either in his field or in his barns. He has 
for his repose a spacious habitation, entirely 
separated from the stables and the barns." 
Even today, this separation is the most surprising 
character of an Alsatian farm. One of the sides 
of the court is occupied by the stable and the 
cowshed, another by a great hangar, supported 
upon beautiful pillars of wood or stone, which 
shelters the haymow, the carts, and the winepress ; 
the third is reserved for the family dwelling, which 
is not here, as in other farming regions, a single 
room which is at the same time kitchen, dining 
room, and bedroom, where the animals have as 
much freedom of entry as human beings. It is a 
clean, comfortable, partitioned home, with an 
invariable plan. 



122 The Spell of Alsace 

Let us cross the porch, sheltered by a pent-roof 
and decorated with old balustrades. Let us enter : 
the inhabitants give a hearty welcome to our curi- 
osity. From the tiled hall open three doors : the 
first opens into a little room where are the storage 
bins and where the provisions are kept, the second 
into the kitchen, the third into the living room. 
This last room has been reproduced a thousand 
times by artists and scene painters. How well 
we know the great molded beams, which hold up 
the ceiling, the square windows through which 
passes the light which plays upon the well-waxed 
stools and table, the long wooden bench fastened 
to the wall, the great sideboard and the little 
etagere which are set across two corners of the 
room, the great cast-iron stove, the adjoining 
settle where the old folks come to warm themselves, 
the provisions hung on the ceiling, the double 
alcove divided by a tall clock, and, behind curtains 
of printed cretonne, the extremely high beds with 
four mattresses, beds whose woodwork is covered 
with painted flowers and whose headboard bears 
a burning heart, with the date of the marriage 
and the names of the happy pair. . . . But what 
the most faithful of these representations cannot 
make us suspect if we have not entered some of 
these interiors is the intimate grace of these 
simple, harmonious and venerable objects. 



The Alsatian Tradition 123 

A popular art — take in its most simple and most 
common meaning this word to which our esthetes 
and politicians have given meanings so varied 
and sometimes so ridiculous — a popular art is 
still alive in Alsace. It is possible that in other 
times and other places the populace has shown a 
more delicate and more varied taste in building 
and adorning its homes. But these times are past, 
and it would be difficult to make comparisons now 
that everywhere else we are reduced to collecting 
the rare relics of the popular art of former times 
and to cataloguing them in our museums. The 
passion for ugliness and the rage for uniformity- 
have not yet taken possession of these Alsatian 
peasants. By a thousand tokens, some charming, 
and others coarse — but this same mixture char- 
acterizes all popular art — we feel that they 
aspire confusedly to a certain beauty, to them 
inseparable from tradition. Everything reveals 
it : these images which they carve over their 
doors, these sculptures with which they decorate 
the beams and the framework of their wooden 
galleries, the pleasing hoods with which they cap 
their chimneys, and even the childish sketches 
which they draw upon the rough-cast of their 
houses. 

Formerly there were, it is said, furnishings of 
rare beauty in these homes : they have dis- 



124 The Spell of Alsace 

appeared ; the secondhand dealer has passed 
through, the ignoble secondhand dealer who has 
devastated all the old homes, and perverted the 
popular taste by depriving it of the daily and 
familiar lessons given it by the pretty things of 
the past, now replaced by department-store 
wares. In these Alsatian farms the secondhand 
dealer has only half accomplished his misdeeds. 
After he had carried away his precious booty, 
the peasants replaced the furniture which they 
had sold with other furniture of the same form 
and character, so that the appearance of the hered- 
itary decoration has not changed. The rubbish 
of the bazaars has not dishonored these interiors. 
It is besides remarkable how strange "the big 
city," although so near, seems to these country- 
men : they derive nothing from it ; they keep the 
costumes which suit them, and the furniture 
which suits their houses. Strasburg has never 
radiated over Alsace the influence of a capital. 
Each village is defended against outside influences 
by a rampart of traditions. 

These houses which we have entered are not 
all of ancient construction, but almost all are 
built and arranged in the same way. At Bues- 
willer is one of the oldest farms of Alsace ; it 
bears over its door the date 1595 ; it conforms in 
every respect to the type which I have described. 




35 



m 
'A 

H 



Q 
O 



The Alsatian Tradition 125 

The Thirty Years' War devastated the country: 
the towns and the villages were ruined, pillaged, 
burned; then Alsace rose slowly from its ruins. 
The farms which were built in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries are like those of Bueswiller. 
(The only difference, as I have indicated, is in 
the design of the wooden balusters.) Those 
which have been built during the nineteenth cen- 
tury all reproduce the same plan. If a date were 
not written on the lintel of the door it would be 
very difficult to guess their age. . . . Thus is 
once more manifested the power of tradition. 

This word tradition flows incessantly from my 
pen. How can I avoid it? It is the secret of all 
the virtues and all the beauties by which Alsace 
enchants and moves us. 

Today has enabled me to enter far deeper than 
ever before into the intimacy of Alsace. I now 
understand more clearly what certain young 
Alsatians mean when they speak of " disengaging, 
maintaining the tradition' ' of Alsace. I saw 
clearly the nobility of their task, I admired the 
reasoned piety with which they set out to defend 
the ideas and the manners of their fatherland 
against foreign conquest. But I had not yet 
experienced how truly Alsatian their enterprise is, 
in principle as in results. They can confidently 



126 The Spell of Alsace 

express their ambition to " disengage, maintain, 
and prolong tradition." In their country such a 
desire is not chimerical; what they wish can be 
accomplished without a miracle. In our prov- 
inces, we have also our " traditionalists" : I 
love their dream and would like to partake of their 
illusions ; but I fear that they only work upon a 
corpse, able to galvanize it for a moment, but 
powerless to resuscitate it. Here the breath of life 
still animates the organism, makes the brain think, 
and the muscles react. 

These Alsatians were born after the annexation. 
They have grown up under German domination. 
They have, in their infancy, been witnesses of 
the frightful deceptions which crushed their 
fathers, when these, after having long expected 
deliverance, had, — without forgetting anything, 
without denying anything, — to bend under the 
law of the victor. When they themselves had 
arrived at the age of manhood, they looked about 
them, they looked beyond the Vosges, and they 
understood : the time of heroic protestations was 
past. The useful, urgent, indispensable task was 
to preserve for their fatherland its century-old 
personality, its moral resources, its intellectual 
character, the originality of its culture; it was 
necessary to defend the hereditary treasure against 
the Germans, who, to better seal their conquest, 



The Alsatian Tradition 127 

wished to Germanize everything from the Vosges 
to the Rhine ; it was necessary also to defend it 
against the Alsatians themselves, for since 1871 
the incessant emigration had impoverished the 
province and diminished its power of resistance. 
They set themselves to the task. They tried to 
give to Alsace a more lively appreciation of its 
ethnic origins, its history, and its art. But they 
were not contented with talking to the literate, 
and with proclaiming obstinately the rights of 
Alsatian thought, Alsatian taste, and Alsatian 
civilization. They encouraged the foundation of 
an Alsatian theater, they persuaded the peasants 
to hold still more firmly to their old costumes and 
their old houses, they spread everywhere the 
images of these ancient things, by photographs, 
prints, and postcards. They encouraged their 
painters, their sculptors, and their architects to 
get inspiration by studying the productions of 
native art. Finally they founded at Strasburg 
the Alsatian Museum, where are exhibited, not 
rare and precious works, but everything which for 
centuries constituted the surroundings of the life 
of the common people and the citizens : furniture, 
household utensils, playthings, clothing, and so 
forth. . . . And this is not a museum of relics 
good only to amuse the sentimental curiosity for 
specimens indulged in by amateurs : I have 



128 The Spell of Alsace 

shown you just now that this past still lives in the 
present. Grouped in the pleasant house which 
the Museum Society has just purchased on the 
Quai Saint-Nicolas, a stone ? s throw from the 
celebrated and charming Hotel des Corbeaux, all 
these objects will give strangers the idea and 
Alsatians the knowledge of a beautiful and power- 
ful national tradition. To have thus pursued for 
five years this task of devotion and of patriotism, 
these young Alsatians must have been in harmony 
with the inmost sentiments of their countrymen, 
for they have truly accomplished the secret wish 
of all hearts. Tests and embarrassments have 
not been spared them. I speak neither of the 
counsels and examples of prudence which have 
been given them in a more or less disinterested 
fashion, nor of the bad humor of the German po- 
lice, always active and troublesome in spite of the 
abolition of the dictatorship. The greatest griefs 
have come to them from elsewhere. They have 
seen Alsace divided against itself , political quarrels 
envenomed by religious discord, the work of union 
compromised by the rivalries of the confessions, the 
Catholic clergy exasperated by the acts of the 
French government, and ready to abandon what 
it had considered, just before, the very dignity of 
Alsace, spirits impaired and courage dashed in the 
midst of the confusion of parties. They have, 



■mm 



W^"^ ; ^ : 




'ymm? 



llpillliliL.i^ 







COURT OF THE ALSATIAN MUSEUM, STRASBURG 



The Alsatian Tradition 129 

nevertheless, persevered, convinced that these 
storms did not agitate the soul of Alsace to its 
depths. They also knew a grief more bitter 
still than that of assisting at the dismemberment 
of their country, on the day when a Frenchman, 
visiting Strasburg, came to question them as to 
" the progress of Germanization " and received the 
story of their admirable efforts with a polite and 
ironical smile. 



R 



X 

TOWARD SAINTE-ODILE 

OSHEIM. — The long street passes under 
three old gates with conical towers; 
the well before the Hotel de Ville has a 
handsome crown with three pinnacles; the tiled 
projections of its gabled roofs shelter the fine 
balustrades of the exterior gallery. This is the 
usual appearance of an Alsatian market town; 
the elements everywhere are similar, but the 
caprices of men, of the location and of light diver- 
sify it infinitely. 

The Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul is a 
beautiful Romanesque edifice; the yellow sand- 
stone of which it is built gives it an unusual 
appearance among the red churches of Alsace. 
Its triple nave is terminated irregularly ; while the 
northern and central naves terminate in two 
rounded apses, the southern one is prolonged by a 
rectangular construction, which was perhaps the 
base of an unfinished tower, and the restorers 
have had sufficient taste not to build a third apse 
in its place. The interior is poorly lighted ; the 

130 




SOUTH DOOR OF THE CHURCH OF SAINT PETER AND SAINT 

PAUL, ROSHEIM 



Toward Sainte-OdUe 131 

shadow half conceals the modern decorations which 
have been so lavishly used and makes still more 
evident the majesty of the robust columns with 
their large capitals. 

Strange sculptures relate the legends of this 
church : at the edge of the roof are four stone 
wolves, each holding an infant in its paws; an 
eagle sits upon the finishing course of the pediment 
which crowns the gable of the fagade ; a knight is 
visible on the roof of the choir ; and an individual 
holding a purse in his hand kneels at the foot of 
the belfry which rises at the crossing of the nave 
and the transept. Here is the explanation of the 
puzzle : a certain Count of Salen had four children, 
who were all eaten by wolves. As the thought that 
he had no heir caused him great sorrow, he con- 
sulted a holy hermit. The hermit promised him 
that his wife would have more children when he 
should have built a church in a place which would 
be indicated to him in the forest by a bird ; one 
day the count saw an eagle hovering over him, 
and commenced to build a church on this spot. 
The end is mysterious : had the hermit made false 
promises? Or rather, did the count, after seeing 
his wishes granted, perjure himself by not com- 
pletely accomplishing his vow? For some reason, 
the building was interrupted for lack of money, 
and to complete it the architect was reduced to 



132 The Spell of Alsace 

begging alms from good Christians : it is he him- 
self who, seated on the roof of his church, his 
begging pouch in hand, has for seven centuries 
reproached the Count of Salen for his credulity 
... or perhaps his wickedness. 

The history of Rosheim presents a frightful 
series of pillages, burnings, and massacres ; it is 
similar to that of all these little towns of Alsace, 
which, from the day when Ariovistus crossed the 
Rhine to the Peace of Nimwegen, lived in the 
midst of the horror of the war without knowing 
twenty years of truce. While reading the story 
of these incessant catastrophes, I happened upon 
an admirable extract from the Chronique de Senones, 
in which the monk Richer relates a scene of drunk- 
enness and bloodshed staged in Rosheim at the 
beginning of the thirteenth century. It is a 
masterpiece of life and color, and truly breathes 
the suffering of Lorraine. I desire to reproduce it, 
not only because of its picturesque beauty, but also 
because the tableau could be wonderfully staged 
even today at Rosheim : the old gates and the 
old church are still standing, and the old cellars 
are still full of the generous Kielber wine with 
which the soldiers of Lorraine surfeited themselves. 

The Emperor had retaken Rosheim from the 
Duke of Lorraine, after having pledged it to him. 
The duke's son crossed the valley of the Bruche, 



Toward Sainte-Odile 133 

and the grand master of his household, Lambyrin, 
led his forces against Rosheim . . . u and be- 
cause thereabout the valley had no defence, 
entered suddenly into the town. Which seeing, 
the inhabitants of the place withdrew into their 
church, and so Lambyrin with his people occupied 
the town and there having found much provision, 
as wine and other meats, each took of them at his 
will. Hereupon, seeing that no one withstood 
them, they entered the cellars and found them 
full of wine, sat there and ate and drank as much 
as they wished. And as this sort of country- 
people is accustomed when they find much wine 
to get drunk, inasmuch as in their homes they 
drink of it not often, these all became drunk, and 
staggering in their gait ran against each other in 
all directions and fell in the streets. Having per- 
ceived which, a certain gentle soldier named Otto, 
who was of the said town, having assembled the 
greatest part of these his co-citizens, said to them : 
1 Courage, friends, do you not see these rustics all 
dead drunk ? Then take up your arms, for with- 
out difficulty we will tan them well/ Hereupon, 
mad with rage (as the Germans have the fashion of 
becoming), rushing from their houses, they threw 
themselves upon the rustics, who, thinking to take 
their arms in their hands, could not, for that they 
had much ado even to stand up. Some even, 



134 The Spell of Alsace 

trying to get to their feet, fell again heavily. 
Others, wishing to surrender at discretion, hic- 
coughed so much that they could scarcely speak 
a straight word. And because the Germans do not 
know how to give mercy to any over whom they 
have the upper hand, they commenced to rage so 
impetuously against them that they overwhelmed 
and massacred those drunken sots with their 
cutlasses to the number of seven score.' ' 

Boeksch. — In 1328, Berthold, Bishop of Stras- 
burg — this was carved in the stone — trans- 
formed into a town the village of Boersch. The 
sign of such a change was always a girdle of 
ramparts and battlemented towers. Boersch then 
had its ramparts, its towers, its gates, and it 
possesses them still — a little dilapidated. But, in 
spite of all, it has preserved the mien of a pleasant 
village, to which its old defences give a presuming 
and charming air. Besides, what a singular 
stronghold ! It cuddles at the bottom of a narrow 
valley, and on all sides the hills overlook its useless 
fortifications. It is therefore probable that if the 
Bishop of Strasburg wished to protect Boersch 
it was less to ward it from serious assault than to 
defend against marauders the casks piled up in the 
cellars of the wine merchants. 

Behind their ramparts these vintners were rich 






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s 














: -^—^ ' m *' 


'(■£ ~~ "~ ' -"*■ ■•■'' ^ 




- 





AN ANCIENT HOUSE, ROSHEIM 



Boersch 135 

and proud. They had a beautiful Hotel de 
Ville ; they loved to decorate the timbers of their 
dwellings and to carve on the lintels of their doors 
the emblem of their calling. When we stop 
before a pretty well or enter the court of an old 
home, without being astonished at our curiosity a 
smiling peasant will say to us : " Ah ! you come to 
see the ancientnesses of Boersch !" 

And now, listen to the* history of the satrap of 
Boersch ! For this town has had a satrap. Yes, a 
dynasty of satraps. 

The bailiwick belonged to the grand chapter of 
Strasburg. In the eighteenth century the func- 
tions of bailiff were exercised in hereditary suc- 
cession by a family named Bartman. Now, on 
the south wall of the church, we may read the 
epitaph of Charles Bartman, who at the age of 77 
years recommended his soul to his Saviour. The 
inscription celebrates in mediocre but touching 
Latin the virtues of this worthy man, his acre 
for the poor and the widows, his courage in defend- 
ing the orphan, his piety, his stout-heartedness in 
sickness, and the love which he inspired among his 
people. As it thus became necessary to indicate 
his office, and to translate into Latin the word 
bailiff (bailli or amtmann), they chose toparcha. 
. . . But, after the death of the toparch, Fran- 
gois Joseph Bartman succeeded him. While he 



136 The Spell of Alsace 

was in office he lost his wife, Marie Odilie Behr. 
She was buried in the church, and they made her 
an epitaph. They praised her also for her love 
for the poor and her courage in illness. But when 
it was necessary to write beside her name the 
name and the title of her husband, they judged 
that this word toparch, despite the majesty given 
it by its Hellenic origin, was not yet adequate to 
the glory and the dignity of a bailiff. They sought 
a phrase : they thumbed the dictionaries ; perhaps 
they even had advice from the chapter of Stras- 
burg ; and behold, what they finally inscribed on 
the walls of the church : 

Sub hoc tumulo requiescit in Domino 

MARIA ODILIA BEER 
Francisci Joseph Bartman satrapae 
In Bersch 
Conjux dilectissima 

Beneath this stone rests in the Lord 

Maria Odilia Behr 

The most charming wife 

Of the satrap Franciscus Joseph Bartman 

In Bersch. 

After seeing this I left Boersch ; I passed under 
the old gate of the fourteenth century; I turned 
about to behold once more the ruins of the ram- 
parts half hidden in verdure. At this moment I 




A FOURTEENTH CENTURY GATE, BOERSCH 



Saint-Leonard 137 



met a vinedresser who, basket on back, passed 
on the road. " She is a descendant of the satrap, " 
said the worthy Alsatian who did me the honors of 
Boersch. And I imagine that a century and a 
half ago the satrap also must have gone to his 
vines with his basket on his back. Nothing 
changes in Alsace, neither houses nor men. . . . 
But who could have even imagined the translation 
of bailiff by satrap ? Was it a canon of Strasburg 
who had in his veins some of the romantic blood 
of Provence? Was it the curate of Boersch, who 
desired to flatter the chapter by comparing it to 
the king of the Persians (Note 20) ? 

Saint-Leonard. — Formerly, a collegiate church 
rose upon the little hillside clothed with vines, at 
the foot of which the Ehn rivulet flows among 
the columns. Around it clustered the houses 
of the canons, who, since the Middle Ages, had 
replaced the Benedictine monks. The Revolu- 
tion suppressed the chapter and razed the church. 
A few fragments of the church were preserved 
in a chapel of the Capuchins of Obernai. As 
to the houses, some were demolished and the 
others sold. Since then, the little hamlet of 
Saint-Leonard has not passed the limits of the 
ancient enclosure and has preserved its canonical 
appearance. In the midst of the great vineyards 



138 The Spell of Alsace 

it seems like a happy isle where everything invites 
one to savor the grace of the country and the 
magnificence of the outlook. 

Here ends the plain. Half a league beyond 
are the steep slopes of the Vosges, the narrow and 
deep valleys, the summits crowned with ruined 
castles, and, in the center of a wide semicircle of 
forests, Mont Sainte-Odile. From Saint-Leonard 
we see in all their perfection the harmonious forms 
of this mountain, predestined by its beauty to 
become the sacred place of Alsace. 

In this hamlet dwells M. Charles Spindler, today 
the most celebrated of the Alsatian artists. Since 
the Universal Exposition of 1900, where his works 
were so much admired, his name is well known to 
the French public. He is a painter and a designer. 
He executed for Les Oberle by M. Bazin a series of 
touching illustrations. The compositions which 
he previously made to illustrate the moving ballad 
of M. Jacques Flach, he Chevalier du Rosemont, 
prove that he knows how to render the poetry of 
the old legends of his country. But he consecrates 
the best and most original part of his talent to the 
design, construction, and decoration of furniture. 
Marquetry is an art of which he is past master. 

He emulates, frequently with the most happy 
results, the art of Galle and of Majorelle. He 
seizes with an almost infallible glance the most 



Saint-Leonard 139 



minute differences of shade in the bits of wood 
which he assembles. He excels in utilizing either 
for the background of his pictures or for the skies 
of his landscapes the natural designs of the wood, 
the accidents of vein and fiber. It is the same 
material which, most delicately studied, furnishes 
the most happy effects of his panels. An admi- 
rable virtuosity, but one which would produce 
only expensive curios if his taste were not subject 
to a strong discipline. 

The source of Spindler's discipline is his knowl- 
edge of and respect for Alsatian tradition, that 
tradition whose survival I have tried to demon- 
strate by describing some of the peasants' homes. 
The strength of the artist rests in his attachment 
to his country and his quiet persistence in remain- 
ing an Alsatian. 

He was born a few steps from here in an old 
house at Boersch. He lives at Saint-Leonard, in 
his little canonical house. He is a simple man, 
blonde and deliberate, a perfect example of his 
race, of which he has the light eyes, the slow pace, 
and the restrained good nature. He has collected 
and trained some artisans who saw and plane in a 
great workshop. There he told me in a few words 
his experiments and methods ; he told me also of 
his work done for Americans, and that seemed an 
unbelievable paradox in this silent retreat at the 



140 The Spell of Alsace 

foot of Mont Sainte-Odile ! But this man can 
work for America without peril. We divine that 
he is so powerfully rooted in his natal soil that the 
seductions of a call abroad are not to be feared 
for him. 

He is not satisfied to borrow motives for his 
marquetry from the flora and the landscapes of 
Alsace. He is inspired by the popular art of his 
country. He adds the grace of a more refined 
decoration, of a rarer taste, to the forms which 
he had before him. But he is a true successor of 
those village cabinetmakers who have for cen- 
turies maintained the Alsatian house in its un- 
changeable and charming beauty. I said just now 
that he created and constructed furniture. The 
word is not exactly correct. An Alsatian interior 
— I have described it in a preceding chapter — ■ 
contains very little furniture, properly speaking : 
merely a table and a few stools. The long bench 
and all the cupboards are part of the woodwork 
with which the whole room is paneled. M. 
Spindler endeavors to retain this arrangement, 
which, I admit, would be ill adapted to modern 
apartments, true encampments of nomads, but 
which by its character of permanence and fixity 
suits a hereditary home. 

This faithfulness to tradition has saved him 
from a great peril which artists perhaps better 



Ottrott 141 

endowed, perhaps more cultivated than he, but 
without defence against the surprises of fashion 
did not know how to avoid. The modern style has 
dashed itself to pieces against the solid and crafty 
good sense of the Alsatian. It sometimes in- 
fluenced very lightly the earlier works of Spindler : 
we might discover there a few of those weak and 
undecided lines which are the mark of the art 
nouveau. But this seed of folly could not sprout 
in the healthy climate of Saint-Leonard. M. 
Spindler builds chairs in which one can sit without 
constraint, robust tables which are solidly estab- 
lished on their four feet, and practical presses 
where one can pile up linen and table wear. As 
to the decoration, we must have seen in the new 
quarters of Strasburg specimens of the Germanic 
" modern style, " those frightful combinations of 
old German bric-a-brac and Belgian rubbish, to 
understand the true originality of M. Spindler . . . 
and of Alsatian art. 

Ottrott. — As I entered the village of Ottrott, 
I saw exposed, before the door of the Swan inn, 
the bier of a French officer. On his coffin were 
placed his cap of a captain of artillery, his saber, 
his cross of the Legion of Honor, his military medal, 
his medals of Crimea and Italy. 

A few instants later the funeral train appeared 



142 The Spell of Alsace 

in the long ascending street, preceded by the 
crucifix and the priest. Except a few foresters in 
gray and green uniform and the postmaster in 
tunic and belt, with a pointed helmet, the men who 
followed the bier all wore tall silk hats and black 
frock coats. Then came in two regular files the 
women in full mourning. The men were very 
grave and did not speak a word to each other; 
the women wept. 

Having arrived at the church, which stands on 
a high terrace, the procession slowly climbed the 
slope under the trees, still in the same order, still 
with the same measured pace, and disappeared 
under the porch. The solemn observance of the 
rites gave to this scene an indescribable grandeur. 

All the children of Ottrott were crowded to- 
gether in the square, awed into silence by the 
sight of the old cap, the saber, and the medals. . . . 

I desired to know who was this officer, whose 
mortal remains were thus carried to the cemetery 
of Ottrott, thirty-three years after Ottrott had 
ceased to be French soil. I was told: "He was 
called M. de Boxtel, and served in the artillery; 
he fought in the Crimea, in Italy, in 1870 : later, 
when he had retired with the rank of captain, he 
returned to Alsace and withdrew to Ottrott, 
where his brother was pensioned as a forestry 
brigadier. He married the daughter of an inn- 



Sainte-Odile 143 



keeper. When his mother-in-law died, his sister 
took over the management of the Swan and he 
lived in the house. The captain, as we called him, 
appeared in the public rooms only to play a game 
of piquet with a few old friends. It was touching 
to see with what care he tried to safeguard his 
dignity as a former officer. He had none of the 
characteristics of a gentleman innkeeper, and 
strangers would have taken him for a guest. We 
esteemed him highly, and loved him well. . . . He 
was a relic of Old Alsace, which is disappearing." 

Sainte-Odile. — It is terribly sad to return to 
a place which one has formerly admired, to find it 
ravaged by* the foolishness of men. 

If you have ever felt the moving beauty of that 
grand terrace of Sainte-Odile whence, as "from a 
peak in Darien," the view stretches across the 
whole plain of Alsace, even to the spire of Stras- 
burg, preserve that image in your memory and do 
not yield to the temptation of reviving it by a new 
pilgrimage. Years ago the convent was trans- 
formed into a hotel, then the hotel into a boarding 
house, and all this tourist accommodation troubled 
somewhat the peace and meditation which one 
would have wished to find in the sanctuary of 
Alsace, in sight of this sublime horizon. Last 
year, however, a traveler could write this: "We 



144 The Spell of Alsace 

quickly shake off this disagreeable impression on 
the terrace, the marvelous terrace, whence one 
looks over a veritable chaos of forests and whence 
we can see, it is said, twenty towns and three 
hundred villages. . . ." That is ended. This 
year the same traveler was unable to recognize 
the marvelous terrace. On one of the sides has 
been built an immense barrack which cuts off the 
view, a frightful Germanic restaurant building, 
built of colored tiles ! The venerable platform, 
consecrated by the legend, is turned into an 
abominable public house. Who has been able to 
persuade the hotel-keeping nuns to allow such a 
sacrilege (Note 21) ? 

... I descended through the woods to the 
bottom of a large valley where in the midst of the 
fields rise the ruins of the convent of Nieder- 
munster. The Romanesque arch of the ruined 
church frames a quiet and melancholy picture. It 
is a landscape perfectly adapted to awaken rev- 
erie, and I there thought of the days which I 
had just employed in traveling about Alsace and 
in which I have yielded so easily to its charms. 
For its seduction is irresistible, and no one can leave 
it without leaving something of himself behind. 

It pleases by the contrasts of its grand aspects : 
seen from the plain, the outline of the Vosges 
against the horizon is a proud and noble master- 



Sainte-Odile 145 



piece ; more admirable still is the spectacle which 
we discover from the slopes of the mountain 
chain, the immensity of the plain over which we 
see alternately floating mists of silver and flying 
tragic shadows of clouds. It pleases also by the 
fine composition of the pictures which appear 
everywhere as you breast the summits, turn the 
corners of valleys, or emerge from the forests. It 
pleases by the perfection of its landscape settings, 
the shimmering softness of the light, the freshness 
of its perfumed vineyards. 

It possesses the singular attractiveness of a 
country where the life of today mingles with the 
life of the past. We cannot understand it except 
by questioning history. To discover the reason 
for its present existence we must retrace the course 
of years and even of centuries. Elsewhere the 
monuments of former days often evoke only 
vanished traditions and customs which have dis- 
appeared; they have no further value than to 
excite the sentimentality of the poet or the curios- 
ity of the antiquary. Here nothing dies. It is 
delightful to decipher the secret of today, perhaps 
that of tomorrow, in relics which elsewhere would 
be food for the archeologist. 

Alsace perplexes us and yet holds us by the 
originality of its temperament and culture. Some 
writers have found in its genius only a compound 



146 The Spell of Alsace 

of French character and German character. It 
has been said that its sensibility was German and 
its intelligence French ; that it thought in French 
and sang in German ; that its public life resembled 
ours, while its sentimental life was like that of our 
neighbors beyond the Rhine. There is a certain 
degree of truth in this method of defining certain 
inclinations and certain oppositions. But when 
we listen to the Alsatians and consider their ways 
of living, of feeling, and of thinking, the same 
thought recurs a hundred times : "This is neither 
German nor French. " I would not dare to 
attempt to define all the peculiarities which are 
properly Alsatian : attempting it, I have only 
been able to feel a few of them. But the thought 
that we are going to penetrate into an unknown 
little world gives every ramble and every con- 
versation here an extraordinary interest. 

All this, which would enchant the eyes, the 
imagination, and the curiosity of a traveler from 
any foreign country, becomes for us French a cause 
of trouble and emotion. We cannot travel in 
Alsace as indifferent and amused tourists : between 
it and us is an ineffaceable, an indissoluble bond. 
By reason of this our first sentiment is one of 
sadness and confusion. The sight of so much 
richness and beauty revives the grief of the in- 
curable wound, and we blush for our short mem- 



Sainte-Odile 147 



ory in the presence of these men who have forgot- 
ten nothing. How many of our countrymen have 
been dissuaded from visiting Alsace by asking 
themselves if it would not be as cruel for them to 
see it obstinate in its remembrance as to find it 
gone over to its new masters ! They were wrong. 
Alsace has long believed that France would come 
to deliver it and repossess it. If this conviction 
had not been firmly fixed in every mind, the 
number of emigrants would have been much higher 
than it was during the years which followed the 
annexation. France did not come, and Alsace 
has lived its life under German domination, 
relying upon itself, no longer expecting anything 
save from its own energy and the chances of fate. 
As the least we can give, it claims from us that 
fidelity of heart which it has so well retained for us, 
and insists that we shall not feign to ignore it. 
Its eyes no longer reproach us for anything. It 
receives us with a smile and discovers at the back 
of its brain that French which the German school- 
masters have not been able to make it unlearn. 
An old Alsatian said to me the other day, to 
excuse his terrible accent : "For thirty years only 
square words have gone through my throat!" 
And this, I believe, is for us the supreme charm of 
Alsace : here, in all glances, we read a welcome 
and an assurance of friendship. 



XI 

"IN THE SERVICE OF GERMANY/' 
BY M. MAURICE BARRES 

TO penetrate the secret of the destinies of 
Alsace, there is no more propitious spot 
than Mont Sainte-Odile. From this bold 
promontory the eye embraces the immense plain 
which since prehistoric time has been swept by 
the flux and reflux of invasion. Here mysterious 
stones, ruins, legends, attest the antiquity of the 
combats in which grappled two races, two civiliza- 
tions. The moving majesty of the forest and the 
horizon renders a reverie in this spot more ardent ; 
and, at the sight of the pilgrims who day by day 
swarm up the mountain paths^ one may under- 
stand that Sainte-Odile is the guardian of the 
memories and the traditions of a people. 

It was therefore natural that, before studying 
"the long tragedy which was played along the 
Rhine by Romanism and Germany/ ' a writer 
should commence by making the pilgrimage to 
Sainte-Odile and by questioning the rocks, the 
forests, and the pilgrims of the sacred mount. 

148 



11 In the Service of Germany " 149 

M. Maurice Barres did not omit this ; he lingered 
for a whole autumn in the woods of the Hohen- 
burg. He savored its persuasive beauty. He 
followed and noted, an entranced spectator, the 
play of sun and clouds over the plain of Alsace, 
the change of colors and the passing of the mists 
in the decline of the year. Following a method 
which is dear to him, — dialectic always mingles 
in his descriptions as in his rhythm, — he has ex- 
pressed all the sentiment and history which can 
be found in these landscapes. Then, in this 
marvelous setting, he has placed the legend of 
Saint Odile, that pagan maid, who in the seventh 
century turned Alsace to Christianity and made 
it submit to Latin genius. This legend has there- 
fore appeared to him as the symbol of the perma- 
nent will of Alsace. "Odile," he says, ". . . 
represents an ideal of peace, of charity, of dis- 
cipline, even of morality, which analysis can 
separate from Catholicism, but which, formed in 
the shadow of churches, forever carries their mark. 
Odile is the name of a Latin victory, it is also an 
Alsatian sigh of relief : a commemoration of public 
safety." And this meditation ends with the fol- 
lowing phrase, which, for M. Barres, sums up the 
whole history of the Alsatian people: "The con- 
stant tendency of the people of Alsace-Lorraine is 
to Romanize the Germans.' ' 



150 The Spell of Alsace 

If such is indeed the lesson given by history, 
legend, and archeology, if the hereditary mission 
of Alsace is to be the " march" of Latin civiliza- 
tion, how can this task be fulfilled today by a 
people which for thirty-four years has lain under 
the law of the conqueror, and upon which Ger- 
many presses with all the weight of its power and 
its glory? When we consent to look calmly at 
the affairs of Alsace we cannot avoid this question. 

M. Barres was not the first to put it. But he 
has established the historic and moral data of the 
problem with the vigor and pathos which are 
characteristic of him : these pages on Mont 
Sainte-Odile would be an admirable overture — 
he himself suggests this expression — well fitted 
to magnify the drama of conscience which it an- 
nounces, if, by a disconcerting caprice of arrange- 
ment, they were not intercalated in the book in- 
stead of forming its introduction. 

As to the solution itself, a young Alsatian 
citizen assumes the task of furnishing it to M. 
Barres. His portrait and his confidences form 
the subject of this book, which is no invention of 
the novelist, as those who know the Alsace of to- 
day can testify. 

t 

Paul Ehrmann was born at Logelbach, near 
Colmar, in 1880. His father, a factory manager, 



" In the Service of Germany " 151 

had refused to emigrate at the end of the war; 
faithful to the memory of France, he had never- 
theless thought that his duty as an Alsatian was 
in Alsace. The boy was schooled in the gym- 
nasium of Colmar, but received a French educa- 
tion in his home. About him he saw that those 
of his countrymen who were guilty of a regret or 
a hope, were denounced, humiliated, and famished. 
He grew up in an atmosphere of conspiracy and 
terror, and reacted against the influences and the 
threats of the conqueror with all the strength of 
his hereditary instincts. He took a medical 
course at the University of Strasburg and arrived 
at the age when he must serve for six months in a 
German regiment. 

"My life," said he, "till then, had been only a 
prologue : in October, 1902, the drama com- 
menced. ..." It is this drama that M. Barres 
has told us, allowing the hero to relate it in his 
own words. But as a preliminary, to acquaint 
us with his character, and to make us better 
understand the trend of his confidences, he has 
invented an anecdote in which are shown with 
delicate art the Alsatian, purely Alsatian, shades 
of character of Paul Ehrmann. 

In an inn of the little town of Marsal, in Lor- 
raine, a French sportsman, M. Pierre Le Sourd, 
pronounces before M. Ehrmann this phrase: "I 



152 The Spell of Alsace 

esteem, whatever may happen to them later, the 
poor devils who pass the frontier more highly 
than the renegades, who, for fear of the Foreign 
Legion, wear the spiked helmet." To which M. 
Ehrmann replies: "I am a good Alsatian. In a 
week I shall enter the barracks of Strasburg, 
Monsieur, and I must demand that you with- 
draw the words renegade and fear which you have 
just used." The Frenchman declares that what 
is said is said ; a meeting is decided upon. In 
order not to disclose the affair, the duel occurs 
in the park of the castle where M. Le Sourd is 
staying, which belongs to his sister, the Countess 
of Aoury. At the first encounter, the sportsman 
is touched in the arm. M. Ehrmann remains a 
day at the castle. Madame d' Aoury employs all 
her Parisian talents to make up for the weariness 
of the waiting, and to expiate the clumsy in- 
solence of her brother. 

The scene is charming. It is equivalent to a 
treatise on national psychology: "During this 
meal the oscillations of her moods, her tact, her 
versatility, in a word her art, which Germans 
would have misconceived and treated as frivolity, 
were made still more noticeable by the very con- 
trast which she offered to this young Alsatian, 
who could say nothing without complete explana- 
tion, and who even seemed to explain his silence 



u 



In the Service of Germany " 153 



by at once making it so very evident that he was 
silent. One might have said that both were 
puppets, though gifted with intelligence and 
sympathy. Although he had numerous ways of 
being Germanic, M. Ehrmann did not misunder- 
stand, as appeared little by little, what a French 
masterpiece this young woman was. He even 
became touching, with his strength and his youth- 
ful stiffness, in his amazement before this 
queen. . . . Soon he had completely forgotten 
that anyone else was there. And when Madame 
d'Aoury said unusual and charming things he 
upset himself a little by laughing too much for a 
whole minute." Then the simple and serious soul 
of Ehrmann unveiled its enthusiasms before this 
young woman, nervous, variable, fantastic, and 
reasonable. On going away, instead of kissing 
the hand extended to him, the Alsatian holds it 
in both his own, and says with an emotion which 
disconcerts Madame d'Aoury, for she feels he is 
laughing at her: "It is only Frenchwomen who 
can be so generous and so delicate." 

A few moments later, as he crosses the park of 
the castle at sunset, he cannot avoid making this 
remark to his companions: "Imagine a fat 
Prussian woman in this park instead of Madame 
d'Aoury! Even if, under this pale blue sky, the 
same buildings, the same arrangement of lawns 



154 The Spell of Alsace 

and woods should remain, which I doubt, where 
would be this delicacy and pride which now over- 
spread the whole domain?" And another Al- 
satian, cold and taciturn, who has accompanied 
Monsieur Ehrmann to act as second in his duel, 
finally decides to break the silence which he has 
kept since morning: "I was a little boy when 
we became German ; you are too young, Ehr- 
mann, you have not seen. ... As for me, I 
remember the French uniforms on the Broglie 
and the Contades. They made the same har- 
mony as the voice and gestures of Madame 
d'Aoury create in an old estate in Lorraine." 

A week later Ehrmann dons the German uni- 
form, and as he himself says, the drama com- 
mences. One can imagine nothing more poignant 
and more grievous. 

An insurmountable aversion separates him from 
the Germans. Doubtless with this sentiment is 
mingled no thought of reprisal : he was born ten 
years after the, siege of Strasburg, he knows 
neither the anger nor the resentment of those 
who were witnesses of the defeat : he can, never- 
theless, regret the French rule which he has 
never seen. What he detests is less the political 
power of Germany established upon the soil of 
his province than the constraint upon his tastes, 
his aspirations, his entire soul, exercised by a 



"In the Service of Germany " 155 

conqueror to whom he proudly believes himself 
superior, while he feels himself bound to France 
by all the ties of race, of family, and of education. 
He is before all an Alsatian, and faithfulness to 
the French spirit appears to him to be the first 
duty of Alsace. Is he not failing in his duty by 
agreeing to become a soldier of the German army ? 
Is he not betraying his intellectual and moral 
fatherland by associating his actions with the 
defence of Germanized Alsace? Why not de- 
sert, as so many others do every day? 

He puts aside this thought, for his father, by 
remaining upon the soil of Alsace, has set his 
course. He considers himself as an "inheritor"; 
he has "neither the desire nor the right to aban- 
don riches already created." Aware of the great- 
ness of his sacrifice, he enters the barracks. But, 
from the first day, when he finds himself facing 
the frightful reality, when he sees himself alone 
in the midst of these strangers with hostile coun- 
tenances, when he feels himself "tied hand and 
foot, a hostage of France in the thick of the enemy 
populace," the idea of desertion assails him anew. 
By a superhuman effort of will he banishes the 
temptation. 

Now his choice is made. But how can he pro- 
ceed so that his acceptance of the situation shall 
not appear a shameful hypocrisy? How shall 



156 The Spell of Alsace 

he command the respect of these Germans who 
have quickly penetrated his inmost thoughts, 
and who are ready to abase in his person the 
pride of rebellious Alsace ? 

Thanks to his French common sense and his 
Alsatian honesty, Ehrmann soon discovers the 
only path which he can henceforth pursue with 
honor. "I will remain, I say to myself. This 
will be harder than I imagined, very hard, per- 
haps. Well, I will take plenty of care. All of 
my revolts which I master will improve me, and 
hatred will give me more manliness. . . . Since 
this lieutenant has every right over my person, 
including the right to humiliate me, there is 
only one way out, which is that I will be an ex- 
cellent soldier and that I will conquer his soldierly 
esteem. I am the only representative of my 
country among all these Germans : he will be 
tempted to say to me : ' Follow the example of 
your comrades.' My ambition must be to re- 
verse the roles and make him recognize the mili- 
tary qualities of Alsace." And Ehrmann adds : 
"All this is paltry, Monsieur, I know it. I would 
prefer, like my grandfather, the soldier of the 
Grande Armee, to enter Berlin victoriously; but 
all that can be required of a man is that he shall 
fight his best on the ground where destiny places 
him." 



"In the Service of Germany" 157 

Ehrmann " fights" with tenacious energy. 
Henceforth nothing distracts him from his pur- 
pose. Punctual, intelligent, and quick as a sol- 
dier, he grows in strength each time that an 
incident of barrack life shows him his own nature 
opposed to that of his officers or his comrades. 
He is implacable in cultivating in himself qualities 
which they lack. He trembles with pride if his 
humanity, his kindness, cause him to be recog- 
nized as a Franzos. He absolves himself for wear- 
ing the German uniform by thinking that the 
men among whom he is condemned to live take 
him for a foreigner, and esteem him without 
thoroughly understanding him. 

It is a diary of this effort of will which M. 
Maurice Barr&s has put before our eyes. I will 
cite only the last passage of this admirable re- 
cital; it is enough to show what consolations 
could accrue to Ehrmann from his heroic resig- 
nation. The very day when he leaves the service, 
having learned that a non-commissioned officer had 
just lost his little daughter, he has a wreath placed 
upon the coffin of the child. "A wreath?" his 
comrades say to him, "but why do it ? You leave 
the service today." The next day the sergeant 
rushes into his room and presses both his hands : 
"You have a great heart, Monsieur Ehrmann. 
At the very moment when I can no longer do 



158 The Spell of Alsace 

anything for you ! Monsieur, one must say it, 
the French have more humanity than others." 
And Ehrmann adds: "He has treated me as a 
Frenchman ! It was the last word I heard in that 
barrack, and one of those which have given me the 
greatest pleasure in life." 

I have felt it worth while to summarize at 
length In the Service of Germany and to transcribe 
several of the passages where M. Maurice Barres 
has clearly defined the motive of his book. For 
this story is not only a fine work of art, perhaps 
the most finished that its author has produced, 
the one in which he has expressed the energy and 
the complexity of his thought with the most 
strength, with the greatest ease, in the most con- 
tinuously harmonious fashion, but it is also a his- 
toric document. 

Here is an image of Alsace calculated to shock 
French sentimentality and German prejudices. 
Doubtless it will not surprise those who have for 
years carefully followed what has been said and 
written beyond the Vosges. But no writer had 
yet showed in a concrete, living, and dramatic 
form, the eternal dislikes of Alsace and its new 
tactics. Oberle, by crossing the French frontier, 
was obeying that sentimental discipline which, 
since the annexation,, the elite of the Alsatian 



" In the Service of Germany " 159 

population has imposed upon itself. Ehrmann 
conceived his duty otherwise : in consenting to 
serve in a German barrack, he does not believe 
that he is paying too heavy a ransom for the 
right of remaining faithful to the hearths and 
gods of his ancestors, of maintaining the tastes, 
the manners, the ways of living, thinking and feel- 
ing, which are for him the very essence of Alsace. 

Frenchmen may not pronounce between Ehr- 
mann and Oberle ; they have lost the right to 
judge the Alsatians. But we must pity the man 
who could not admire the noble conduct of Ehr- 
mann, and who could not understand the advan- 
tages which result from it for Alsace and possibly 
for France. 

This Alsatian character who, under the Prus- 
sian helmet, preserves a French brain, may appear 
to some of us improbable or at least exceptional. 
It would doubtless be childish to believe that all 
the young Alsatians who undergo military service 
in German regiments are like the type described 
by M. Barres. Men of a character as masculine 
and a conscience as acute are very rare; we are 
not accustomed to meet so much intelligence 
combined with so much passion. But that the 
sentiments and thoughts incarnate in Ehrmann 
are today common to a great number of young 
Alsatians, is proved by a thousand minor facts 



/ 

160 The Spell of Alsace 

which I have already observed in my travels in 
Alsace. 

We may notice that this M. Ehrmann resembles 
M. Barres in a very surprising manner, that he 
reproduces with singular persistency the theories, 
the formulas, and even the language of the na- 
tionalist writer, and while assuming that the 
painter has put much of himself into this portrait 
we may suspect that the result is not true to 
nature. This mistrust would be quite natural, 
but also very unjust. The resemblance which 
we here observe between the author and his 
hero is a mark of truth In France the tradi- 
tionalist thesis of M. Maurice Barres won a few 
fervent disciples; but it was quickly debased to 
the lowest level, that of political argument ; even 
those who accepted it most willingly as a good 
rule of thought, a wise discipline of intelligence, 
revolted against the deductions which partisans 
wish to draw from it. In Alsace, on the con- 
trary, the ideas of M. Barres have found ac- 
ceptance because they were perfectly adapted 
to the conditions of a small population, obliged 
to react perpetually against foreign influences and 
to reunite each day the threads of tradition 
broken by the conqueror. What these young 
Alsatians desired in a confused way was to attach 
themselves to their land, to continue the work 



tt 



In the Service of Germany " 161 

of their dead, to take fast root. They found in 
the books of M. Barres very beautiful formulas, 
clearly expressed, and explained with the per- 
sistence of a doctrinaire, a well-reasoned ob- 
stinacy which was not displeasing to Alsatian 
heads. That is why their articles and their 
speeches are impregnated with "Barresism." M. 
Ehrmann speaks and talks as a good disciple. 
This is quite true to life. 

This character is therefore not an imaginary 
being, but it will be asked if he is not chasing 
a phantom: after thirty-four years of German 
domination what can a will, even though heroic, 
accomplish against the school and the barrack, 
against all the prestige and power of the con- 
queror, against his brutality, against his skill, 
against the partisan spirit which divides the Al- 
satian people, against the demoralizing spectacle 
of affairs in France? It will be said that Alsace 
has no longer any bonds with France, either 
political — the conquest has broken them, — or 
economic — French protection has suppressed all 
commercial relations, — or religious — the Catho- 
lic clergy is almost wholly affiliated with the Ger- 
man Center party : facing these realities, what 
avails it to continue to struggle against Germani- 
zation ? That is accomplished. 



162 The Spell of Alsace 

This is a sordid and material way of looking at 
the Alsatian question : yet it is far too common 
in France. Ehrmann reasons in another fashion. 
"He does not define the French quality of Alsace 
by the fact that a French prefect may administer 
Alsace, nor in the fact that a French regiment 
may occupy the barrack on the Place d'Auster- 
litz, nor in the fact that the manufacturers of 
Mulhouse may ship their products to Paris. 
These are political, military, or economic 
facts. ..." Beyond and above these contin- 
gencies remains the only thing which, for an 
Alsatian, is worth the trouble of being protected 
and maintained, Alsatian civilization. 

This is not an empty and senseless word. 

All the Germans who have immigrated to 
Alsace since the annexation have found that 
this province was sweet and pleasant to dwell 
in, but they have all felt that they were strangers 
there. If in each town two societies have grown 
up, living entirely apart from each other, the 
original cause of this separation was the resent- 
ment of the annexed population. But time has 
passed and the barriers were still kept up. When 
they are lowered, occasionally, it is not because 
an Alsatian has become Germanized ; it is because 
a German has succeeded in acquiring Alsatian 
manners and tastes, Alsatian " culture," which 



" In the Service of Germany " 163 

means, for the Germans make no mystery about 
it, French " culture." 

Four years ago, Professor Werner Wittich of 
the University of Strasburg — a German — wrote 
an article entitled On German Culture and French 
Culture in Alsace, a carefully worked out and ex- 
tremely impartial study. He has analyzed the 
genius of the two races and shows that the Al- 
satians partake of both : they are German, ac- 
cording to him, in moral and intellectual qualities, 
French in democratic sentiment and in what he 
denominates " sense culture" (art, clothing, cook- 
ery, and so forth . . .). In his opinion, even 
if Germany can successfully develop the German 
elements which underlie the Alsatian nature, she 
cannot impose on Alsace her monarchical and 
aristocratic spirit, nor make her forget what she 
owes to the art, the habits, and the taste of France. 
11 It is not so much" he says, "on the movement of 
Alsatian spirit toward German genius, as on the 
evolution of German Kultur toward French culture 
that the more or less rapid disappearance of the 
differences which separate Germany from the spirit 
of Alsace will depend." 

Whoever thinks over this avowal of a German 
scientist who is well acquainted with Germany, 
Alsace, and France will understand that the work 
of defence for which the young Alsatians persist 



164 The Spell of Alsace 

in remaining in their fatherland is neither vain 
nor chimerical. They are completing the work 
of the Roman legionaries on the Rhine and of 
Odile on the Hohenburg. 



XII 

THE CASTLE OF MARTINSBOURG. — 
ALFIERI AND THE COUNTESS OF ALr- 
BANY 

WHEN we leave Colmar and travel 
toward the mountain which is crowned 
by the triple ruin of the towers of 
Eguisheim, we reach, a league from the town, 
the houses of Wettolsheim. They occupy the 
first slope which rises gently from the plain 
of Alsace. Wettolsheim has nothing to distin- 
guish it from so many charming villages situated 
like it at the foot of the Vosges, among the vine- 
yards : wide gateways give entrance to its farm 
courtyards, surrounded with covered galleries, 
garlanded with vines; the clear mountain water 
flows through the long stone channels whose 
edges have been worn into hollows where the 
vinegrowers have sharpened their knives. 

At the end of one of its streets we enter by a 
modest doorway the garden of the castle of 
Martinsbourg. 

This castle is a large and characterless build- 
ing. Successive restorations and reconstructions 

165 



166 The Spell of Alsace 

have deprived it of any appearance of antiquity. 
Martinsbourg is said to date from the tenth cen- 
tury. But it has lost its towers, which have been 
replaced by square projections. Looking at its 
facades, we might take it for a building of the 
nineteenth .century. Today its only beauty is 
its wonderful location and the admirable pictures 
framed by each of its windows. Twice the poet 
Alfieri came to this castle to meet his adorata 
donna, Alo'isia de Stolberg, Countess of Albany. 

Alfieri wrote to one of his friends : "The view 
which we enjoy is admirable; from the terrace, 
and especially from the second story windows, we 
look across the whole immense plain traversed by 
the Rhine and so magnificently enclosed by the 
Vosges and the Black Forest, like the plain of 
Pisa. At the foot of the castle, against the moun- 
tain side, stretches the modest and smiling village, 
whose sight does not weary the eye (die non da 
noia alV occhio), while on the other side, imposing 
even in their ruins, rise the three castles of Eguis- 
heim, the ancient residence of the lords from 
whom descended Pope Leo IX. When the 
weather is clear and the Swiss snow-peaks ap- 
pear, notching the heavens on the horizon, it 
would be difficult to imagine a greater variety of 
aspects, a greater profusion of colors." 




EGUISHEIM 



Alfieri and the Countess of Albany 167 

This spectacle, the very same one which charmed 
the vision of the amorous poet, we also can con- 
template from the terrace of modernized Martins- 
bourg. It makes us dream of the past. It is of 
little importance that there is nothing, either in 
the appearance or in the furnishing of the castle, 
to recall the memory of Alfieri and his friend. A 
collection of curiosities and relics, carefully labeled, 
cannot evoke memories as can a beautiful land- 
scape. Our curiosity is too often deceived and 
our imagination irritated when, imprudent pil- 
grims, we desire to question too closely the objects 
among which great men have lived their poor 
human lives. For the objects change and lead us 
into ridiculous errors. Returning to the " happy 
valley/' Olympio no longer recognized the garden 
which had witnessed his happiness: "Our leafy 
chambers are changed to thickets ; the tree where 
we carved our motto is decayed or fallen; our 
roses have been torn up by little children who 
climbed the hedges!" 

The wide horizons are immutable in their 
magnificence. One verse, a single verse, written 
in praise of the plain of Alsace, brilliant, rich and 
joyous, 

La donde il pian traspar culto ed allegro, 

decorates with the spirit and the glory of Alfieri 
this charming hillside of Alsatian vineyards. 



168 The Spell of Alsace 

In the eighteenth century Martinsbourg was 
the property of Joseph Antoine Georges de Wal- 
court. He restored his castle and to preserve to 
posterity the memory of this work built into the 
wall a stone tablet bearing in German this pom- 
pous inscription : " When the eagle with two heads 
and the eagle with one made war, Joseph Antoine 
Georges, Count of Walcourt-Rochefort de Faing 
Kybourg and of the Holy Roman Empire, Lord 
of Wettolsheim, restored the castle of Martins- 
bourg, destroyed in the time of Charlemagne and 
built on the ruins of the castle called Josephs- 
burg." Unfortunately, a few years later, the 
Sovereign Council of Alsace notified the Sieur 
de Walcourt that he was forbidden to bear the 
title of Count which he had assumed without 
authority, and the inscription was buried in the 
garden, whence it was resurrected in the nine- 
teenth century. . . . 

This Walcourt died without issue. Martins- 
bourg, which he had embellished and ornamented 
with a garden constructed in the form of a laby- 
rinth, passed to his grandniece, the Canoness 
Catherine de Maltzen. 

Mademoiselle de Maltzen was one of the ladies 
of honor of the Countess of Albany, wife of the 
Pretender Charles Edward Stuart. She had lived 
in the intimacy of the countess at Rome, in the 



Alfieri and the Countess of Albany 169 

Mutti Palace, and had then followed her to Flor- 
ence. When the countess had separated from her 
husband and had been authorized by the Pope to 
take refuge with the Ursulines at Rome the 
canoness went back to Alsace. And we now 
know how Alfieri was led to Martinsbourg. 

When, in the month of August, 1784, the Count- 
ess of Albany went to Alsace, she had just been 
through some terrible experiences. 

Aloisia de Stolberg, daughter of an Austrian 
lieutenant-general, had been married in 1771 to 
the grandson of James II, Charles Edward. He 
was fifty-one years old ; she was nineteen. . . . 
The young hero who, twenty-five years before, 
had almost reconquered his kingdom and had 
astonished the world by his chivalrous adven- 
tures, was acquainted with all the sadnesses and 
all the forfeitures of exiled royalty. The court 
of France had abandoned his cause; but, as it 
believed it to be good politics to perpetuate the 
race of Stuart, it had induced the Pretender to 
remarry. Two admirable phrases of Chateau- 
briand summarize the whole history of this union : 
"The illustrious exile married a princess whose 
generous reputation has been perpetuated by 
Alfieri. . . . Toward the end of his life, he 
abandoned himself to wine-bibbing, an ignoble 



170 The Spell of Alsace 

passion, but through which he at least returned 
to mankind forge tfulness for forgetfulness." 

During the winter of 1777, Alfieri was received 
at Florence in the family of the Pretender, who 
had taken the name of Count of Albany. He was 
barely twenty-nine years old, and after a lazy 
and disorderly youth had just decided impulsively 
that he would become a poet. He had come to 
Tuscany to " unf renchif y " himself, and to learn 
the true idiom of his native land. The two 
masters of his republican and aristocratic imagina- 
tion had been Montaigne and Plutarch. His 
heart burned with furious and silent passions. 
He hesitated several weeks before following the 
allurement of the love with which the countess 
had inspired him. " Having ended by perceiving 
after two months that she was the woman whom 
I sought, because, far from finding in her as among 
the generality of women an obstacle to literary 
glory, and from seeing the love with which she 
inspired me disgust me with useful occupations 
and, so to speak, diminish my power of thought, 
I found there on the contrary an incentive, an 
encouragement and an example to all that was 
good, I learned to know and appreciate so rare a 
treasure, and then I delivered myself to her with- 
out reserve." 

He broke every bond with his fatherland, Pied- 




PORTRAIT OF ALFIERI 



Alfieri and the Countess of Albany 171 

mont, and settled at Florence in order to pursue 
his studies and his work near his loved one. 
When the brutalities of Charles Edward had 
rendered life in common insupportable to the 
countess and a brief of Pius VI had permitted 
her to retire to Rome, Alfieri followed her there. 
She dwelt in the house of her brother-in-law, 
Cardinal York; he lived in the Villa Strozzi, 
situated in the Baths of Diocletian. "In the 
evening I descended into the inhabited villa, 
and when I had reposed myself from the fatigues 
of study with the sight of her for whom alone I 
lived, for whom alone I studied, I returned happy 
to my desert where I never reentered later than 
eleven o'clock." 

The relatives of the Countess of Albany were 
scandalized by these daily visits. Anticipating 
the order to leave Rome which he was sure to 
receive, Alfieri departed. The separation lasted 
more than a year. The poet traveled in Italy, 
France, and England until he learned that the 
Pretender had finally consented to a separation 
from bed and board and that the countess, hence- 
forth free, was about to return to Switzerland 
and from there to Alsace. He was then at Siena. 
In twelve days, traveling by way of Trent, Inns- 
bruck, and Swabia, he arrived at Colmar. Then 
he found himself again "in complete unison of 



172 The Spell of Alsace 

heart, mind and soul" and, " almost without 
knowing it," he conceived three new tragedies : 
Agis, Sophronisba, Myrrha. 

■ In one of the salons of the castle of Martins- 
bourg are hung two small engravings, one repre- 
senting Alfieri and the other the Countess of 
Albany. It is a pious thought. Nevertheless a 
memory embarrasses us, however disposed we may 
be to "see human beings as they are," as Sainte- 
Beuve advises us in his pleasing portrait of the 
Countess of Albany; these portraits have, with- 
out any doubt, been copied from the paintings of 
Fabre. 

Stendhal, in Rome, Naples and Florence, has 
introduced this treacherous phrase: " There are 
excellent portraits of Alfieri by M. Fabre, a young 
French painter, who lived in the same house." 
Since then, all the veils have been rent. And 
doubtless Sainte-Beuve had full reason when he 
wrote: "The only completely involuntary wrong 
of the countess was to live and to survive : ' I 
live because I cannot die/ she said. As long as 
she had to live she should have arranged her life 
rightly. Can one make of it a wrong and a 
task? She only obeyed the law of years and 
the decline of the seasons. She came down a 
bit. . . ." Just the same it is tiresome to be 




PORTRAIT OF THE COUNTESS OF ALBANY 



Alfieri and the Countess of Albany 173 

obliged to think of Fabre, in this castle, where 
Alfieri was so perfectly loved. 

Let us leave these unpleasant thoughts. If we 
wish to know the guests of Martinsbourg, here 
are two portraits which we can contemplate with- 
out scruple : both are from the pen of Alfieri. 

"Perfectly black eyes, full of a gentle flame, 
joined (a rare thing) to a very white skin and 
blonde hair, gave her beauty a splendor by which 
it was difficult not to be stupefied, and from 
.which one escaped with difficulty. She was 
twenty-five, had a very lively taste for literature 
and fine arts, and the character of an angel. ..." 
Such had appeared the Countess of Albany to the 
eyes of Alfieri, on the day of their first meeting 
— seven years before Martinsbourg. 

As to the poet, in a proud sonnet of his later 
years, he thus pictured himself : 

" Sublime mirror of sincere thoughts, show me 
in body and soul such as I am : hair now sparse 
in front, and quite red ; tall of stature, and with 
head bent toward the earth ; a fine frame on two 
slender legs; a white skin, blue eyes, a noble 
expression; a straight nose, beautiful lips, and 
perfect teeth; paler of countenance than a king 
upon his throne; sometimes hard and bitter, 
sometimes pitiful and gentle; wrathful ever and 
never malicious; mind and heart perpetually 



174 The Spell of Alsace 

struggling; most often sad, but at times ex- 
tremely gay ; sometimes believing myself Achilles, 
and sometimes Thersites. Man, are you grand or 
vile? Die and thou shalt know." 

I have no luck : after copying this sonnet I 
perceive that it is dedicated to Fabre — always 
Fabre — on the occasion of the painting of the 
portrait which he started six months before the 
death of Alfieri. . . . Sainte-Beuve was decidedly 
right. The wisest thing is to see human affairs 
as they are. 

The two lovers remained two months at Mar- 
tinsbourg. They parted again. He returned to 
Tuscany. She went to Bologna for the winter; 
then, having decided never to return to Rome, 
went to France. In the following August they 
met again in Alsace. This time, Alfieri brought 
his papers, a part of his books, and all his cav- 
alry. . . . 

This poet had two passions, hatred for tyrants 
and love for horses. During his last visit to 
England he had purchased fourteen blooded horses, 
in memory of the fourteen tragedies which he had 
already composed. In his Memoirs, he has told 
us the annoyances and the bother which this 
caravan had caused him all the way from London 
to Turin, the disembarkation at Calais, the cross- 



Alfieri and the Countess of Albany 175 

ing of France, and the passage of the Alps by 
Mont-Cenis. He made a little fun of his own 
mania, but could not conceal the pleased vanity 
which he had at traveling with such a train. 
So he arrived at Martinsbourg with these fourteen 
animals and also did not forget "his beautiful 
fawn-colored Fido, who had several times carried 
the burden of his well-beloved at Rome." 

This second reunion did not last beyond the 
month of December. The countess was to pass 
the winter in Paris. Alfieri conducted her to 
Strasburg, then returned to seclude himself in 
the castle of Martinsbourg. There he completed 
three tragedies, finished a poem, composed a 
" tramelogedy " and a dialogue. One day, when 
his love had written to him that she had just seen 
with lively enthusiasm a presentation of Vol- 
taire's Brutus, he suddenly felt his heart and 
mind fill "with an emulation into which entered 
at once anger and disdain," and he said to him- 
self : "And what Brutuses! The Brutuses of a 
Voltaire. I will make Brutuses myself. ... I 
will handle both of them. Time will tell which 
of us is better fitted to claim such a subject for a 
tragedy, I or a Frenchman who, born of the 
people, has for more than seventy years signed 
himself: ' Voltaire, gentleman in ordinary to the 
king.'" And upon the spot, "with the rapidity 



176 The Spell of Alsace 

of lightning," he conceived both his tragedies of 
Brutus. This effervescence of the imagination 
cost him a terrible attack of gout in the spring. 
Then, as his countess had not been able to come 
and rejoin him at the promised date, he fell into 
great vexation of spirit. Finally, in August, the 
return of the lady gave him back joy, health, and 
inspiration. 

What was their life in this solitude? We may 
imagine it from the picture which Alfieri has 
drawn of a sojourn together several years later, 
in a villa near Florence. "We were," he says, 
"both tirelessly occupied with the study of litera- 
ture; for, well versed in German and English, 
equally well taught in Italian and French, she 
knew to perfection the literature of these four 
nations, and the translations of the classics which 
have been made in these four languages had taught 
her all that it was needful for her to know of them. 
I could therefore converse with her on any subject, 
and as heart and mind were equally satisfied, I 
never felt happier than when it was necessary for 
us to live alone by ourselves, far from all the cares 
of humanity." 

Nevertheless, they tore themselves from this 
happy solitude and went to pass a few months 
in Paris, the city which Alfieri hated above all 
others. Then once more they passed the summer 



Alfieri and the Countess of Albany 177 

in Alsace. Alfieri almost died there of an attack 
of dysentery. At the end of 1787 they went back 
to Paris, followed by all the poet's cavalry. They 
never returned to Martinsbourg. 

The chances of fate had condemned Alfieri to 
become the guest of the people whom he detested. 
This hatred of France, and of Paris in particular, 
can be explained by many reasons. Alfieri him- 
self has confessed the most decisive : the first time 
that he came to Paris it rained in torrents con- 
stantly for a fortnight. It is from such trifles that 
the most tenacious prejudices arise in the case 
of impressionable men. Then Alfieri reproached 
France with having corrupted the language, the 
manners, and the spirit of his country ; his whole 
intellectual life was a long and grievous effort to 
free himself from the tyranny of French words 
and thoughts. He suffered from the trammels 
which a wholly French education gave to the free 
flight of his imagination; he suffered still more 
from never having been able to break these fetters, 
and from feeling that, in the structure of his 
tragedies and sometimes even in his style, he re- 
mained subject to the discipline of French taste. 
Finally this enemy of kings, this lover of liberty, 
hated the French because it seemed to him that 
they parodied, caricatured, and insulted his own 



178 The Spell of Alsace 

ideas and beliefs; he had written furious tirades 
against tyrants, but in the manner of the re- 
publicans of ancient Rome, as an aristocrat ; and 
when he saw the work of the tiger-apes, as he 
called the people of Paris, he had an access of 
disgust. For a long time he had felt what an 
abyss separated him from the disciples of Jean 
Jacques Rousseau. 

But, to understand and define the "miso- 
gallicism" of Alfieri, it would be necessary to 
study to his very depths this singular genius who 
carried all his passions "to a degree of energy 
which has perhaps never been concentrated in a 
human heart since the madnesses of the Middle 
Ages. . . ." (Note 22). And this is not the 
place to drag it in during a pilgrimage to Martins- 
bourg. 

I will content myself with mentioning the loca- 
tion of the lodgings which Alfieri took at Paris 
when he had left Alsace: ". . . I looked for a 
house, and I had the good fortune to find one, 
very quiet and very pleasant, in a secluded situa- 
tion on the new boulevard of the Faubourg Saint- 
Germain, at the end of the Rue du Montparnasse. 
I had there a very beautiful view, excellent air 
and the solitude of the fields. In a word, it was 
the mate of the villa which I had inhabited in 
Rome, in the Baths of Diocletian. " And I beg 



Alfieri and the Countess of Albany 179 

persons who affect the sport of ancient topography 
to be kind enough to search out the precise loca- 
tion of the house to which Alfieri did the honor of 
comparing it to the Villa Strozzi. 

As to the fifteen horses, Alfieri gave almost half 
of them to his friend, who needed them for her 
convenience. 

At Wettolsheim, the remembrance of Alfieri 
and the Countess of Albany long remained fresh 
and the people of the village spoke "of an illus- 
trious foreign princess and a great Italian lord 
who was not her husband." 

In a charming pamphlet in which Madame Lina 
Beck-Bernard has collected some souvenirs of 
her great-grandfather, Gottfried Conrad Pfeffel, 
the blind poet of Colmar, I have read a story 
which I wish to copy, for it allows us to penetrate 
into the salon of the castle of Martinsbourg, and 
paints to the life the existence of its guests. 

It is "the daughter of a friend of the Pfeffel 
family' ' who relates her memories of Alfieri: 
"The Countess of Albany saw me at the house of 
my cousin Maltzen : I was then six years old, 
with curly hair and rosy cheeks. The princess 
declared that I resembled Cupid, and begged 
from my mother permission to take me to her 
castle at Wettolsheim. She made me put on a 
long gown of pale pink silk and a tunic of sky- 



180 The Spell of Alsace 

blue crepe, to the back of which were attached 
wings of gauze covered with peacock feathers. 
To complete my equipment as Cupid they gave 
me a bow and quiver of gilded wood and thus 
disguised, placed me in front of a vast sofa of 
yellow damask, surmounted by a canopy of the 
same material. On this sofa was stretched Count 
Alfieri, wrapped in furs, though it was the height 
of summer. The princess and some of her female 
friends were seated about while Alfieri declaimed 
to them with poetic fury passages from his trag- 
edies. His passionate gestures, his burning words, 
frightened me almost to death. . . ." What a 
pleasant picture, this Cupid put out of counte- 
nance by the vociferations of the poet in the 
midst of a circle of women, amused at the 
masquerade ! 

With this vision we must leave Martinsbourg 
and return toward Colmar. 



XIII 

FERRETTE 

PRECEDED by the perpetual clanging of 
a bell a little train travels beside the road 
from Altkirch to Ferrette. Through 
the flowery and smiling villages which spread 
along the edges of the 111 the little train makes its 
way so slowly that we have plenty of leisure to 
examine the landscapes of the Sundgau and notice 
how different they are from the other landscapes 
of Upper Alsace. This wide and lazy valley of 
beautiful spreading meadows, closed in the distance 
by wooded hillsides, makes a strong contrast with 
the narrow valleys of the Vosges, whose steep 
slopes are clothed with forests. The villages 
seem different. We no longer see here the great 
Alsatian farms, with their arched gates opening 
on wide courts surrounded by buildings with 
galleries and overhanging roofs. Isolated chalets 
announce the neighborhood of Switzerland. 

When it arrives at the bottom of the foothills 
of the Jura the little train, still ringing its bell, 
enters a narrower valley and reaches Ferrette, 
among its beech woods. 

181 



182 The Spell of Alsace 



The first houses, the " faubourg," as the people 
of Ferrette call it, are hidden in a little gorge. 
The village itself still remains invisible, clinging, a 
little higher up, to the shoulder of the hill, whose 
summit carries an old ruined castle; nothing 
could be more unexpected than the picturesque- 
ness of this little three-story town. Ferrette has 
only five or six hundred inhabitants, but pretends 
to be a small city. It boasts an old church whose 
tower is surmounted by a gabled top like a police 
cap, say the old Alsatians, and this style of cover- 
ing, which we are accustomed to see in churches 
of the Isle of France and Normandy, surprises 
us a little in Alsace, where almost all the towers 
terminate in a bulb or a pyramid. Adjoining the 
square of the faubourg in front of the church is a 
large open space before a singular pedimented 
fagade, ornamented with strange allegories. Here 
dwelt an original character, whose name is still 
familiar at Ferrette : Philippe Xavier Desgrand- 
champs, who died in 1880, at the age of eighty-six 
years. He was a notary by profession, but was an 
amateur mechanic, architect, sculptor, and poet. 
He invented machines to print designs in color 
on cloth and paper, boring machines, planing 
machines, a rolling invalid chair for helpless 
individuals, a mechanical phaeton, and wrote 
more than six thousand German verses; I have 



Perrette 188 

not read them, but a poet of the Jura, Napoleon 
Vernier, while regretting that Desgrandchamps did 
not have sufficient respect for grammar and 
rhyme, has praised him for having written 

" Two volumes of verses of charming composition, 
Which are the reflection of a loving disposition." 

He was, in fact, full of kindness and zeal for the 
welfare of his compatriots, and endeavored, though 
without success, to introduce the industry of 
clockmaking into Ferrette. He wished to adorn 
his native town, and ornamented his house with 
his own sculptures : as a statuary, unfortunately, 
he was no better than as a poet. But it is amusing 
to find at Ferrette the tradition of this worthy, 
beneficent, and imaginative notary. The en- 
counter aids us in divining the peaceable and 
industrious existence led in the last century by 
the burghers of the Sundgau. 

The only street of Ferrette, of the "ville" of 
Ferrette, forms a terrace overlooking the valley; 
it is bordered by pleasant homes of substantial 
appearances, among which is a H6tel de Ville of 
the sixteenth century. This charming picture is 
a little spoiled by a courthouse, quite new, and 
entirely too German in style. 

Thence a zigzag road mounts the hillside and 
enters the bailey of the castle, whose four towers 
are not entirely ruined. A little higher up are 



184 The Spell of Alsace 

the jagged remains of the seigniorial donjon. 
The ancient seat of the Counts of Ferrette re- 
mained standing until the Revolution. Louis 
XIV, in 1659, had given this fief to Mazarin, and 
even today we find in the neighboring forests 
boundary stones with the arms of the Cardinal. 
The Valentinois inherited the domain, then the 
Grimaldi, and the Prince of Monaco bears, among 
many other titles, that of Count of Ferrette. The 
destruction of the castle commenced after the 
Fourteenth of July, 1789. Bands which had 
just sacked the abbey of Murbach arrived at 
Ferrette; they burned the bailiff's house, and 
made a bonfire of all the old charters which were 
surrendered to them by the bailiff's clerk. It is 
said that these brigands discovered a chest full of 
money, and as they were not able to burst it open, 
they had to content themselves with cutting a 
hole : through this each plunged his hand and 
made off with what he could grasp ; one attempted 
to get a second handful, and was seen by another 
who, with a single blow of a hatchet, slashed off 
his hand, which remained in the chest. After 
this they pillaged the castle. Time, here as 
elsewhere, has finished the work of the Revolu- 
tionists. 

From the castle platform the eye beholds one 
of the grandest and most moving spectacles which 



Ferrette 185 

the land of Alsace can offer, the luminous trough 
of the valley of the Rhine between the Vosges 
and the Black Forest. Nearer at hand undulate 
the fertile fields of the Alsatian Jura. At the 
foot of the height which is crowned by this 
admirable belvedere, beech woods conceal in their 
thick shadows rocks and caverns which the popular 
imagination has peopled with legendary beings. 
The grace and good fellowship of the little town, 
framed by a surprisingly pretty landscape, ruins 
which evoke the tragic memories of the Thirty 
Years ' War, forests whose every clearing is em- 
bellished by a fairy tale, all these are comprised 
in the charm of Ferrette. Possibly I would have 
experienced it less vividly if an old and charming 
Alsatian had not made me acquainted with it by his 
words and stories. Mingling his own memories 
with those which he had collected from the mouths 
of old inhabitants, that living chronicle of Ferrette, 
he made me understand what treasures have been 
ravished from us by the abuse of books. For it is 
now lost, the art of those story-tellers who per- 
petuated the traditions of each village. I shall 
never be able to think of Ferrette without recalling 
the words of the good M. Vogelweid, those words 
groping for delicate shades of meaning, to which 
the Alsatian accent gave such a turn of savory 
malice, without seeing again the sly glance with 



186 The Spell of Alsace 

which each word was seasoned, and I shall hear 
this delicious old man draw in three sentences the 
portrait of one of the former lords of Ferrette, de- 
scribe the debut of Benoit Labre in hotel-keeping, 
break down over the virtues of the notary Des- 
grandchamps, tell wonderful stories of smuggling, 
and relate how in 1860, Jude, a Ferrettian, Jude, 
the mysterious assassin of President Poinsot, gave 
the slip to the police, who had locked him up in a 
room of the Hotel de Ville. . . . 

Half an hour's walk from Ferrette, in the little 
valley of the Luppach, stood before the Revolution 
a Franciscan convent, founded in the fifteenth 
century. The church was demolished in 1854 
and its only remnant is a crypt which served as 
the monks' burying place; a pulpit and an altar 
screen which came from Luppach were placed in 
the church of Bouxwiller, the nearest village. Of 
the ancient conventual buildings there remain only 
the outhouses and a sundial. A few modern 
buildings have been erected and contain a hospital, 
where the Sick Benefit Fund of Mulhouse sends 
its convalescents. 

In 1792, the priory of Luppach was declared a 
national possession, and the last monks marched 
out, the aged chanting a Te Deum and the young 
crying: "Vive la nation!" The monastery was 




PORTRAIT OF ROBESPIERRE 



Ferrette 187 

turned into a military hospital ; but this establish- 
ment was a long way from the highroads and it 
was difficult to bring the wounded there. So the 
house was abandoned to a steward and a cook. In 
1795 these two officials entertained a portly, 
short-sighted and shrill-voiced stranger, accom- 
panied by a lady, as to whom they could not 
decide whether she was his nurse, his niece, or his 
wife : it was the illustrious Abbe Delille, the author 
of The Georgics and of the poem The Gardens. 

He had exiled himself from Paris after the Ninth 
of Thermidor, that is to say, at a period when he 
might have remained without danger. Therefore 
the date of his departure gives the lie to the legend, 
according to which he had incurred the resentment 
of Robespierre by lashing the oppressors in a 
dithyrambic ode composed for the Fete of the 
Supreme Being. Without having fully illuminated 
this very dark period of the life of Delille, Sainte- 
Beuve has remarked that he was not a man who 
deserved the disfavor of the Revolutionists, and 
he equitably added : "'The canaries sing in their 
cages/ said Marie Joseph Ch&rier de Delille; 
but at least this charming canary, who was dis- 
covered in the palace which smoked with the 
blood of his masters and whom they would have 
liked to make sing, this canary, let us say it to 
his honor, was sad and did not sing." 



188 The Spell of Alsace 

It was therefore not as a fugitive that Delille, 
after having stopped some time at Saint Die, the 
home of his nurse, arrived in the Sundgau. The 
reason for his voluntary exile has been asked. 
It has been said that he took fright when one of 
his friends jestingly placed a hand on his shoulder 
in the name of the law. It has been pretended that 
the Boeotian manners of the members of the 
Committee of Public Safety had disgusted him 
with residence in Paris. It has been suspected 
that he yielded to an impulse of disgust at the 
news that the poet Le Blanc had been preferred 
to him for national honors. It has even been 
said that he wished to prepare for the future by 
this pretence of emigration. . . . However it 
may be, the seclusion of Luppach pleased him, 
and as the hospital was empty, the steward 
undertook to bed him and the cook to board him. 

He remained at Luppach for a year, and com- 
posed there, it is said, his poem The Man of the 
Fields. The people of Ferret te remembered his 
stay among them. Only a few years ago there 
was felled in a woods near Luppach a hollow 
beech where the poet used to shelter himself 
from rainstorms. Even today on the fagade of 
one of the buildings of the old priory, we may read 
this inscription : 



"Sometimes we behold the enormous mass of 
an old castle " 



Perrette 189 

IMMORTALI VIRO, LUPPACA DELILIO 

According to an improbable tradition, Delille 
often promenaded in the country, abandoning 
himself to inspiration with tumultuous gestures 
which caused the villagers profound stupefaction. 
We can scarcely imagine a versifier as tranquil 
and spiritual as Delille giving way to such Byron- 
esque gesticulations. The spectacle of nature did 
not throw into such a frenzy the descriptive poets 
of classic times. 

But did Delille describe from nature? His 
ingenious and cold pictures scarcely give that 
impression. His epithets are chosen for rhyme 
only. He was sometimes able to feel and even 
express the charm of a garden. The beauties of 
the fields were evidently strange to this parlor 
poet. The people of Sundgau would like to believe 
that these verses, 

" In the dark bosom of this secluded wood, 
Behold these ruins of an antique abbey, 
Forgotten monuments of the monastic cult," 

were written in sight of the ruins of Luppach, and 
that these, 

" Sometimes we behold the enormous mass of an old castle, 
Pompously bizarre and nobly ruined," 

refer to the castle of Ferrette. It is possible, but 
it is well to recognize that another monastery and 



190 The Spell of Alsace 

another castle might have inspired the same choice 
of adverbs and adjectives. The judgment which 
the poets of 1830 made on Delille cannot be revised. 
When the Institute was reorganized, Delille 
was invited to return and take his place among his 
former colleagues of the French Academy. He 
replied : "I found myself so well satisfied with 
obscurity and poverty during the Reign of Terror, 
that I still prefer them, if only out of gratitude; 
I have been informed that this resignation will 
entail certain persecution ; if this should happen, 
I would say, like Rousseau : ' You persecute my 
shadow/ " No one, to tell the truth, dreamed of 
persecuting either Delille or his shadow. From 
Luppach, the abbe and his nurse went to Switzer- 
land and then to England. No one knows why 
they came to the Sundgau nor why they left it. 

Jean Henri Schwindenhammer was born at 
Ferrette July 14, 1761. His father exercised the 
functions of archigrammateus, that is, secretary of 
the notaries. He received an education which was 
wholly French and then lived for a long time in 
Germany. There he became acquainted with 
Schiller, his elder by two years. It is probable 
that the two young men met at Mannheim, when 
Schiller was supervising the first representation 
of The Robbers there. Schwindenhammer con- 




PORTRAIT OF SCHILLER 



Ferrette 191 

ceived the greatest admiration for the German 
poet. 

After traveling extensively on the continent, 
he returned to Paris and dreamed of writing 
dramas. His terrible Alsatian name would have 
seemed strange enough to Parisian ears ; he trans- 
lated it into French and called himself La Martel- 
iere. 

His first effort, in 1787, was a very free imitation 
of Schiller's Robbers entitled, Robert the Robber 
Chief. The first version of this drama was not 
the one which was afterwards acted, for the latter 
contains the clearest reference to the occurrences 
of the French Revolution. But the revolutionary 
feeling of Schiller's piece, which had passed into 
that of La Marteliere, is sufficient to explain why 
the first Robert was never produced. The same 
reason decided its success when, after the abolition 
of the censorship, it was produced at the Marais 
Theater, March 6, 1792. This success was 
repeated at several provincial theaters. 

In reading this declamatory melodrama, it is 
not difficult to agree with the judgment of Etienne 
and Martainville, authors of The History of the 
French Theatre. "We cannot fail to regard the 
production of this drama as one of the causes which 
destroyed every sentiment of humanity in the 
popular mind ; in short, we are persuaded that the 



192 The Spell of Alsace 

author impelled to crime a crowd of misled men, 
and that he did not guide a single one into the 
path of virtue." Later, to excuse himself, La 
Marteliere said, "My piece was written three 
years before the fall of the Bastille. Neither it nor 
I was the cause of the Revolution." His piece 
nevertheless became, by force of circumstances, a 
veritable apology for the revolutionary tribunal. 
The whole public thus interpreted it, for after 
Thermidor, the Committees of Public Safety and 
General Surety judged it prudent to suppress it, 
and then received from La Marteliere the following 
petition, which was referred to the Committee of 
Legislation, the 29th Brumaire, Year III : 

" Citizens, 

"Love of the public good has determined you to 
suppress the performance of a work hitherto pre- 
sented under the name of Robert the Robber Chief. 

"I was not the last to perceive that the change 
of times and circumstances has rendered this 
measure just and indispensable. I would have 
anticipated your orders by withdrawing this piece 
myself, if the purity of my intentions had not up 
till now prevented me from perceiving the danger 
it might contain. 

"There remains to me therefore only the merit 
of submission, but if you will recall the time when 
it was composed (in 1787), I would have perhaps 



/ 



Ferrette 193 

some right to your indulgence for having dared to 
write in a period of slavery what could be heard 
without danger under republican rule. 

" However this may be, I know no other interest 
than that of the people, no other will than that of 
its representatives. I make it therefore not only 
a duty, but a true pleasure to give up this work, 
although its revenue has been, since my office 
(Note 23) was abolished, my whole fortune and 
that of my family. 

"This consideration impels me to beg of you 
employment, either in a national library, or in 
some other department of public instruction, 
where my knowledge of languages and study 
of literature might be of some advantage. I 
await your decision with confidence, persuaded 
that - you will not leave idle the father of a 
family who asks only the opportunity to render 
himself useful. 

"As to my other works, I submit them as well 
as my conduct to all the severity of your censor- 
ship. If errors are found in them, there will cer- 
tainly also be found pure intentions and the 
principles of a republican soul, which, even before 
the Revolution, was the enemy of all kinds of 
tyranny. 

"I refer in addition to the testimony of the 
Revolutionary Committee of the Sections of 



194 The Spell of Alsace 

Fraternity and of Armed Mankind, where I have 
dwelt since the commencement of the Revolution. 

"La Marteliere. 
"Rue du Chaume, No. 21." 

How was this petition received? Did La 
Marteliere obtain the place which he begged? 
All that we know of his life during the Revo- 
lutionary period is contained in this document. 
The petition of the Year III was the beginning of 
a wise conversion which was to carry him far, very 
far, from the Revolution. After being appointed in 
1803 to a position in the Administration des droits 
reunis, he passed the rest of his life in composing 
honest comedies, virtuous melodramas and lively 
romances. In 1816, he was conspicuous for his 
royalist zeal; certain biographers have even 
affirmed that, when he died in 1830, he was M. de 
La Marteliere. . . . 

His destiny would resemble that of many other 
literary men who appeared during the Revolution, 
accommodated themselves to the Empire, and were 
enthusiastic for the Restoration, and would not 
merit much attention, if La Marteliere had not 
played a part in the literary history of his time, 
by making Schiller known to France. Of Robert 
the Robber Chief George Sand has said all there is 
to be said : "This is only a miserable imitation of 



/ 



Ferrette 195 

Schiller's Robbers and yet this imitation has interest 
and importance, for it enfolds a whole philosophy. 
It is the Jacobin system in essence : Robert is an 
ideal mountain chieftain, and I beg my readers 
to peruse it again as a very curious monument of 
the spirit of the times." La Marteliere never- 
theless neglected to use the name of Schiller in this 
connection; "A drama imitated from the 
German/' was the only phrase which followed the 
title of his work. When, to the list of foreigners 
to whom the Legislative Assembly voted the title 
of French citizenship, some one added the name 
of Schiller, " German publicist," which, trans- 
formed by a clerk into Giller, became Gilleers in 
the Moniteur and simply Gille in the Bulletin des 
Lois, was La Marteliere the inspirer of this 
homage? We have no ground for affirming it. 
But a few years later he published, under the 
title Plays of Schiller, a translation of Love and 
Intrigue, The Conspiracy of Fiesco and Don 
Carlos. In the preface which he prefixed to this 
collection, he claimed that the French should take 
great interest in German plays, and especially in 
the dramas of Goethe and Schiller, which he set 
above those of Shakespeare. In 1801 he produced 
a drama entitled Love and Intrigue, in which he 
deviated much less from the text of Schiller than 
he had done in imitating The Robbers. He thus 



196 The Spell of Alsace 

anticipated Madame de Stael, and thanks to him 
French imagination was for the first time intro- 
duced to the accomplishments of German 
Romanticism. 

Let us observe that this introduction was the 
work of an Alsatian. With La Marteliere begins 
the long series of writers born between the Rhine 
and the Vosges who have endeavored during the 
last century to impart to Frenchmen German ideas 
and literature. Knowing both languages, and 
imbued with the spirit of both people, Alsace was 
the natural clearing house for these intellectual 
exchanges. It never faltered in this task, not 
even after the annexation, for it was still by Alsa- 
tians, during the last forty years, that we were 
instructed in German art and thought : do I need 
to recall the excellent translations of Nietzsche by 
M. Henri Albert, the fine essays of M. Lichten- 
berger on Wagner and Nietzsche ? 

The Ferrettian La Marteliere began this enter- 
prise, from which both nations draw an equal 
profit. This is why I have enlarged upon his 
life and work (Note 24). 



XIV 

HAGUENAU AND NEUBOURG 

ALSACE was the most favored battle 
field for the armies of Europe, and the 
history of each of its towns is but a 
sequence of sieges, pillages, and conflagrations. 
Of all the little Alsatian cities, none, perhaps, 
has suffered the rigors of war as often or as cruelly 
as Haguenau. An imperial city, a free city, a 
French city, Haguenau has been taken, burned, 
dismantled, then rebuilt and refortified only to 
undergo new assaults and new disasters. Not 
until the eighteenth century did it commence to 
know peace and security. To know its history, 
we have only to walk through its streets and study 
its architecture. Few of the existing buildings 
antedate the reign of Louis XV. A few remnants 
of the old ramparts, some towers, a great arch of 
stone beneath which passes the Moder, two 
churches, two or three Renaissance houses, such 
are the only remains of the ancient city. Every- 
where we may see curving balconies, smiling 
masks, delicate ironwork. In the great square, 

197 



198 The Spell of Alsace 

the hospital displays its elegant facade. Else- 
where, modest houses boast of doorways of 
deliciously fanciful designs, or ovals of sculptured 
stone frame the dormer windows of an immense 
Alsatian roof. 

Wissembourg entranced me, one day, by its 
charming eighteenth-century mansions. Hague- 
nau cannot offer as complete a picture nor as 
touching an appearance. It is a rich city, for it 
owns the forest which extends up to its very gates, 
and which is the largest in Alsace ; during the last 
twenty years, therefore, modern buildings have 
been erected here and there, which have somewhat 
changed the old-fashioned look of the town. In 
spite of this, the stamp of French art is here so 
profound that we have for an instant the illusion 
of believing ourselves "at home." The reality, 
however, quickly convinces us that we are 
"abroad." This reality is conveyed by the 
signs, the posters, the uniforms, by the colossal 
building of a museum, as formidable as a citadel 
or a brewery, by a palace of justice, entirely new, 
where an architect has employed himself in "re- 
producing the eighteenth century," but what an 
eighteenth century! A sort of exasperated Ba- 
roque architecture decorated in one place with 
great garlands of terrifying clumsiness, in another 
with vases like old Bavarian helmets and enlivened 



Haguenau and Neubourg 199 

by indiscreet polychromatic decoration, for the 
window frames, the gutters, and even the water- 
spouts are daubed with blue and white. It is 
hard to say whether the museum or the palace of 
justice is more offensive in this little town, so 
nicely laid out along its canals and around its 
squares planted with old trees, and to which its 
waters, its verdure, and its silence give a charm 
which is almost Flemish. 

Saint George of Haguenau was a beautiful 
church composed of a Romanesque nave and a 
Gothic choir. But ferocious restorations and 
especially terrible overpaintings have frightfully 
disfigured it. The walls are covered with frescos, 
the vaults beautified with a " floral decoration," 
the capitals colored alternately red and blue. 
We possess in France some old edifices on which 
this barbarous treatment has been inflicted; 
happily, they are rare. But the mania of repaint- 
ing the churches has sprung up all over Alsace 
since the annexation. Saint Peter the Younger 
of Strasburg is the most ridiculous specimen of 
this disastrous method. A hundred precious 
monuments have fallen victim to the same fate. 
The charming Gothic church of Walbourg (not far 
from Haguenau) has been decorated "in the 
style of the fifteenth century," that is, a style 
borrowed from Books of Hours, for illuminations of 



200 The Spell of Alsace 

manuscripts have been conscientiously enlarged 
to adorn the vaults of churches! Fortunately, 
dampness will soon destroy this archeological 
carnival. In fifty years, nothing will be left 
of all these daubs. 

Meanwhile, the Alsatians are shocked by it, 
and make it the theme of incessant jibes. The 
Germans are a little disconcerted by these, for, 
from the Rhine to the Vistula, they have painted 
all their churches, and hold as an indisputable 
axiom that the taste for crude color is one of the 
signs of the energy and youthfulness of the Ger- 
manic race. Nevertheless, in spite of the exhorta- 
tions of some Pangermanic esthetes, they have 
not yet decided to paint the portals of the Cathe- 
dral of Strasburg. 

On one of the outskirts of Haguenau, near the 
Wissembourg Gate, rises the Gothic church of 
Saint Nicholas. It contains marvelous sculp- 
tures in wood, the most perfect in Alsace, except 
possibly those of the ancient abbey church of 
Marmoutier. They decorate the organ chest, the 
pulpit, the panelings, and the choir stalls. The 
pulpit, all whose lines curve with elegant delicacy, 
is crowned with statuettes of children of inimitable 
grace and truth. As to the choir, its carvings are 
of two styles : those of the entrance, with their 
rectangular frames, their garlands, and their 




CHOIR OF SAINT NICHOLAS, HAGUENAU 



Haguenau and Neubourg 201 

medallions, are pure Louis XVI, while the others 
which embellish the choir proper show the fancy 
and richness of the style of Louis XV. The 
misereres are ornamented, sometimes with rock- 
work, sometimes with angels' heads. Four stalls 
are surmounted by canopies formed of palms and 
sustained by caryatides. The whole betrays the 
hand of confident and skillful artists; but we 
may pick out especially two exquisite caryatides of 
angels in prayer which, because of their touching 
accent of truth and perfect execution, far surpass 
the other sculptures. 

While admiring this charming work we notice 
that it does not seem to have been made for the 
place it now occupies : the organ chest has been 
cut down ; the pulpit does not fit very well to the 
pillar against which it is placed. We perceive in 
the choir that certain parts have been cut and 
others patched, and that several panels of the 
original decoration are lacking. We suspect that 
relics of some other church, now destroyed, have 
been brought to adorn Saint Nicholas. This is 
what we learn on asking. 

At Neubourg, a couple of leagues from Hague- 
nau, there was formerly a Cistercian monastery, 
which was almost entirely demolished in 1793. 
Later, the Black Band completely destroyed its 
ruins. But, at the beginning of the nineteenth 



202 The Spell of Alsace 

century, a curate of the church of Saint Nicholas 
had the pious thought of saving what remained 
of the decorations of the church and had these 
carvings brought to Haguenau. He placed them 
in his church as best he could, and piled up in a 
loft the fragments which he could not use. Several 
of these panels, in Louis XVI style, were later 
utilized in the choir of Marmoutier; other frag- 
ments may now be found in the museum of Hague- 
nau. 

We must then go to the museum, without allow- 
ing ourselves to be intimidated by the formidable 
and Germanic aspect of the monument. In this, 
vast and well-lighted halls contain a few fine 
pieces of furniture and some historical souvenirs; 
others, not less well lighted, are still absolutely 
empty. . . . The museum of Haguenau is a 
museum in expectation. It is here that hospital- 
ity has been given to the remnants of the treas- 
ures of Neubourg : carved panels, a wooden 
bas-relief in imitation of the Last Supper of Leo- 
nardo da Vinci, two statues of children, a mag- 
nificent sacristy chest, and so forth. 

Finally, before the church of Saint George, in 
the midst of a little garden, stands a pretty 
fountain, surmounted by a group of children. It 
formerly ornamented one of the courts of Neu- 
bourg. 



Haguenau and Neubourg 203 

At the sight of all these fragments, I experienced 
a desire to know if there did not exist some other 
remnant of the monastery for which these precious 
carvings were created. I was assured that every- 
thing had been laid level with the earth. Never- 
theless I followed the valley of the Moder to 
Neubourg. 

In the midst of meadows, on the bank of the 
little river, an old and solid wall still encloses three 
sides of the abbey close. A high and noble portal 
in Vosgian sandstone adorns the entrance to the 
domain. An old stable and the porter's lodge are 
still standing, and a glance at the little door, 
surrounded by elegant moldings, leaves no doubt 
that this structure was contemporary with the 
wood carvings at Saint Nicholas. There is 
nothing more. In the place where stood the 
cloister and the church extend pastures and 
gardens. Nothing remains of the old monastery, 
founded in 1128, by Count Renaud de Lutzel- 
bourg. The individual who purchased Neubourg 
when it was sold as national property completed 
the work of the Revolutionary pillagers. The 
peasants of the neighborhood helped themselves 
to the stones to build themselves houses. The 
library and the picture gallery fell into unknown 
hands. Until 1846 it is said that one could still 
see, in vthe midst of the fields, a small Gothic 



204 The Spell of Alsace 

chapel, surmounted by a pyramidal tower of 
stone, and flanked with belfries; this was then 
savagely destroyed. Haguenau possesses all that 
the house-breakers have spared. 

These monks of Neubourg, who ornamented 
their church with such beautiful carvings and 
erected in the midst of the cloister such a pleasing 
fountain, were unfaithful to the spirit of Citeaux, 
and the modern vandals have only avenged Saint 
Bernard. They avenged him too well, and when 
we admire the sculptures treasured in the church 
of Saint Nicholas, we cannot contemplate this 
spot, now deserted, without sadness. 

The site where the pupils of Saint Bernard 
prayed, and where later some less austere monks 
tasted in an elegant retreat the pleasures of the 
hunt or of study, is imbued with a melancholy 
which harmonizes with the memory of the devas- 
tation. ... The horizon across the Moder is 
abruptly closed by the edge of the woods of Hague- 
nau. On the autumn morning when curiosity 
led me to Neubourg wisps of fog floated across 
the meadows and above the yellowing branches 
of the holy forest. A burst of sunlight caused 
them to disappear; but the landscape, even in 
full sunshine, remained grave and unsmiling. 



XV 

SOULTZ-SOUS-FORETS. — THE LETTERS 
OF THE BARONESS DE BODE 

SOULTZ-SOUS-FORETS is a hamlet of 
Lower Alsace, halfway between Haguenau 
and Wissembourg, on the verge of the 
forest of Haguenau. Before the Revolution, 
Soultz still remained under the suzerainty of the 
Archbishop Elector of Cologne. It was one of 
those innumerable principalities over which foreign 
princes had retained their rights, although Alsace 
had been a part of the kingdom of France for a 
century and a half. This strange situation cu- 
riously complicated the position of goods and 
persons between the Vosges and the Rhine, and 
the map of Alsace in 1789, with its old feudal 
divisions, presents the appearance of an extraor- 
dinary mosaic. 

Soultz, until 1720, belonged to the Barony of 
Fleckenstein and then passed to the family of 
Rohan-Soubise. The death of the last of this race 
left the fief vacant. In 1788 the Archbishop of 
Cologne conferred it on Baron de Bode. 

205 



206 The Spell of Alsace 

I am going to summarize the history of this last 
overlord of Soultz-sous-Forets from a lively account 
published by M. F. Dollinger in the Revue alsa- 
cienne illustree (Note 25). He has made use of 
the letters of Baroness de Bode, who related with 
marvelous truth to nature the events of her 
dramatic destiny. At the same time, his deep 
knowledge of Alsatian matters has enabled M. 
Dollinger to indicate clearly, but not insistently, 
what these documents can teach us of the history 
of Alsace before and during the Revolution. 

Baron Auguste de Bode was a Hessian, born at 
Fulda. Without losing his nationality, he entered 
the service of France. He was Lieutenant- 
Colonel of the Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment, in 
garrison at Lille, when he made the acquaintance 
of a young Englishwoman, who was traveling on 
the continent with some friends, Mary Kinnersley, 
the daughter of a gentleman of Staffordshire. 
He married her. The resources of the household 
were slender, and each year Madame de Bode 
gave her husband a child. It became necessary 
for them to find some way of increasing their 
means. The baron exchanged and became Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel of the Nassau Infantry Regiment, 
which belonged to the Prince of Nassau-Saar- 
bruck, but which nevertheless was also a part of 



The Letters of the Baroness de Bode 207 

the French king's army. He took up his quarters 
at Sarrelouis, and held in the court of his sovereign; 
the Prince of Nassau, the office of " Grand Marshal 
of Travel/' while his wife became a lady of honor 
of the princess. But the number of his children 
continually increased and positions at the court 
of Nassau were mostly honorific. M. de Bode 
decided to sell his commission as lieutenant-colonel 
and hunt for a lordship on the revenues of which 
he might live. 

The fief of Soultz was vacant. But the lieu- 
tenant-colonel had received for his commission 
only 125,000 livres. The Archbishop Elector 
of Cologne demanded 200,000 as the price of in- 
vestiture. A brother-in-law of the Baroness de 
Bode offered to advance the missing 75,000 livres. 
The " Grand Marshal of Travel" went to Bonn; 
he was received in the most friendly fashion by 
Maximilian, the Archbishop Elector of Cologne, 
the youngest of the sons of Maria Theresa, who 
was celebrated for his extraordinary appetite. 
By reason of having' too well pleased his suzerain, 
he returned home with a bilious fever, but feudally 
invested with the lordship of Soultz. This feudal 
investiture was not the only requirement. The 
King of France required that the vassals of princes 
"in possession" in Alsace should render homage 
to him and acquire French nationality. "This 



208 The Spell of Alsace 

pleasantry," wrote the Baroness, "cost Auguste 
more than fifteen hundred livres." Finally, in 
December, 1788, the new lord presented himself 
at the frontier of his lordship. 

He was received with great pomp; salvos of 
artillery, the ringing of bells, speech-making by 
notables. The citizens assumed blue and red 
military uniforms ; the Jews were dressed as green 
and scarlet dragoons. In the great hall of the 
H6tel de Ville four damask armchairs were placed 
for the President of the Sovereign Council of 
Alsace, Commissioner of the King of France, for 
the new lord and his wife, and for the Bailiff of 
Soultz, M. Rothjacob. On a table covered by a 
napkin, a bit of turf had been placed on a silver 
dish. After a fine discourse the Commissioner of 
the King presented this symbolic sod to the Baron 
de Bode, thus notifying him that he might take 
possession of his domain. Young girls offered 
bouquets. A young Jewess presented an illu- 
minated parchment, containing a prayer in German 
and Hebrew. They went to church. The priest 
celebrated mass. The Lutheran pastor read a 
sermon. The four hundred heads of families took 
the oath of allegiance. It was the first act of a 
comic opera. But it was 1788, and the sequence 
of events soon made evident the irony of this 
pleasing prologue. 



The Letters of the Baroness de Bode 209 

For the moment the Baron and the Baroness 
de Bode abandoned themselves to the entertain- 
ment afforded by this feudal idyl. Nevertheless 
they were very worthy people. The husband was 
a brave soldier and an excellent father to his 
family. His heart was better than his intelligence. 
But his wife was able to direct and administer 
the affairs of the domain. She was a brainy, 
practical, reasonable woman, with a lively and 
hasty spirit. She had most of the illusions of her 
caste and her surroundings, partly out of vanity, 
but especially because the new regime was to 
ruin her and hers. What could she understand of 
the French Revolution, an Englishwoman, married 
to a German, transplanted to Alsace, subject of 
King Louis XIV, and vassal of the Archbishop of 
Cologne ? 

Her joy effervesces in one of the first letters 
which she wrote from Soultz. (The letters of 
Baroness de Bode were addressed to her relatives 
in England.) " Soultz is our capital, besides 
which we possess six villages. We are sole masters 
and have the right of high and low justice. We 
determine the whole civil law. We have at least 
a dozen positions to fill, and I must tell you that 
we have been bombarded with solicitations since 
the investiture.^ I hope that that will soon come 
to an end, because we have already filled almost 



210 The Spell of Alsace 

all the offices. The form of the government is so 
different from that of the English government, that 
I can hardly give you an idea of it. The highest 
post is that of Bailiff. It is a very important 
position, and although it may not be held by a 
person of quality, the holder nevertheless has 
horses and a carriage and a table as well served as 
that of an English lord. The second place is that 
of the Registrar, who is chief of the bureau of 
archives and who also is well served. Then come 
the intendant, the master of the household, the 
treasurer, the ushers, sergeants, jailers, guardians, 
and so forth, all chosen by ourselves and in our 
pay. 

" You know that Soultz has a pleasing and agree- 
able situation, and that it is a charming and rich 
corner of the earth. There are a cathedral, a 
Protestant church, and a synagogue. We have 
here thirty-four Jewish families who are required 
to pay dues for permission to live here. The 
tithes, large and small, belong to us by right. 
Our subjects are required to furnish us such a 
quantity of hens, chickens, and capons, of grain, 
hay, and potatoes, that we shall never be able to 
consume them. It is impossible to tell you all the 
rights which we have. We do not know them our- 
selves. Every woman is obliged to spin for me two 
pounds of tow or hemp each year, and every sub- 



The Letters of the Baroness de Bode 211 

ject, male or female, is obliged to work for us ten 
days in the year. Every innkeeper is required to 
pay us a certain sum for a license to hang out a 
sign, and every measure of wine which enters our 
territory pays us an excise. All the fines come to 
us by right. We possess also the right of aubaine, 
and quantities of fine properties, both ploughland 
and pasturage. The salt spring is an allodium; 
it previously belonged to us. In the fief we own a 
coal mine which we expect to work, and which 
promises very large profits, and also a mine of pitch 
with a vein four feet thick. It is a land flowing 
with grain, oil and wine. ... If God has sent 
us many children, he has also given us in abun- 
dance the wherewithal to provide for them." 

Behold in a few lines an epitome of the feudal 
regime, and the picture of a little Alsatian town 
at the end of the eighteenth century, a good 
historic document which is also a good moral 
document, for in this letter we see mingled in- 
genuous contentment at reigning over a people 
composed of male and female subjects, and the 
satisfaction, so natural to a good housekeeper, of 
being sure of her provisions. 

Then they worked the salt well ; they worked 
the mine; they filled the barns with tithes and 
they moved into a fine new house. The old 
chateau of the barons of Fleckenstein was ruinous. 



212 The Spell of Alsace 

They built a spacious family residence (the lord 
had already eight children), a fine two-story 
building, which the Baroness de Bode caused to be 
painted and adorned with guillotine windows in 
the English fashion; the window fittings were 
brought from London. This house still exists, 
but all the windows are now hung on hinges, like 
honest Alsatian windows. It is probable that 
they were changed in the nineteenth century by a 
proprietor not given to Anglomania. 

After the fall of the Bastille, there were some 
troubles in Lower Alsace. A riot broke out at 
Soultz ; a few peasants were hanged. Several 
days later the news came that on the night of 
August 4 the nobility had surrendered its privi- 
leges. We may guess how this news was received 
by Baroness de Bode, who had recently detailed 
with so much joy all the feudal rights of which she 
had taken possession. At the same time she began 
to perceive that the hangings had not improved 
matters: "You cannot imagine/' she wrote, 
"the insolence of the rabble." The happy success 
of her industrial enterprises distracted her a little 
among her apprehensions : "All in all, I find this 
bustling commercial life very amusing." The 
mine and the salt spring prospered ; in fact, they 
did not cease to prosper during the whole Revo- 



The Letters of the Baroness de Bode 213 

lution ; there, as elsewhere, the workmen did not 
seem to share the hateful and savage passions of 
the peasants. But events at Paris and the votes 
of the Constituent Assembly doubled each day the 
alarms of the Lord of Soultz. 

The letters of Madame de Bode well show us 
the state of mind of these nobles, isolated in their 
principality, deceived by all the promises which 
were showered on them from the other side of the 
Rhine. "We Alsatians still have hope, for there 
are so many foreign princes involved in our losses, 
that it is not possible that they will allow us to 
lose all our feudal rights. . . . And if the nation 
does not indemnify us, the Elector of Cologne 
must, for he has taken our money. . . . We are 
all victims of the usurpation of power by a handful 
of tyrants who have seized the reins of govern- 
ment. France, which was the happiest of 
countries, has become a den of bandits. . . . 
What we own is worth certainly 500,000 livres, 
[do not forget that they had paid 200,000 for it 
two years before] and yet money is so scarce and 
the credit of France is so poor that it is impossible 
to raise money even on good security. . . ." 
War seems inevitable to Madame de Bode and 
what comforted her a little was that the issue of 
this war did not v appear doubtful to her : the 
French army was undisciplined, and from every 



214 The Spell of Alsace 

quarter came announcements that regiments had 
risen against their officers. One day in the midst 
of all these anguishes and all these hopes, she gave 
vent to this cry of pride of race: " Think what 
respect they can have for their new bishops ! 
The one whom they have elected to the episcopal 
chair of Strasburg in place of Cardinal de Rohan 
is one of our former vassals, whose father, before 
the Revolution, would have been bound to load 
our manure on his cart and drag it into our field, 
if it had pleased us to order him to do so." 

After taking refuge with the Margrave of Baden, 
she repeated to her correspondents the common 
opinion of those who surrounded her: " Three 
hundred thousand trained men are under arms 
ready to march to our assistance. The French 
army is disorganized. . . . The national guard is 
only a handful of peasants who will scamper away 
at the first cannon shot. . . . The general opinion 
is that Alsace and Lorraine will again become 
German. You can easily believe that we desire 
it." Her husband, who had joined her there, was 
obliged to return to his capital ; the law of March 
23, 1792, against the Emigres had just been pro- 
mulgated. A month later war was declared. 
"I have confidence," said Madame de Bode, 
"that everything will be in order and quiet before 
the end of the year." 



The Letters of the Baroness de Bode 215 

She was then at Carlsruhe, and there she saw 
the army of the Allies. She described to her 
correspondents the terrible appearance of the 
Pandours, the civil manners of the Hungarians, 
the pleasant ways of the Austrians, and her con- 
fidence increased from day to day. In spite of 
her optimism, however, she still retained some 
foresight, and she understood how dangerous was 
the attitude of the French emigres: " Nothing is 
more foolish than their conduct, wherever they 
are. All the terrible lessons which this unhappy 
Revolution has given them cannot cure their 
natural frivolity. . . ." And, a little later, after 
Jemmapes and Valmy had taken away her 
illusions as to the superiority of the Allied armies, 
she wrote again : "The French nobles are greatly 
to be pitied. It must be said, it is true, that they 
have everywhere acted so inconsiderately that they 
have made everyone lose any feeling of pity for 
them. A large number, a very large number, 
have unluckily and needlessly entered the armies 
which are fighting their country, and in this way 
have rendered impossible any reconciliation with 
the nation. Happy are those at present who 
have prudently observed neutrality. We now 
feel the good effects of the prudence and modera- 
tion of Auguste. I would only like to be safe 
and sound on the other side of the Rhine, for I 



216 The Spell of Alsace 

believe that at this moment France is the safest 
refuge, and that no one is safe anywhere else. . . ." 

The prudent and the moderate had to pay for the 
faults of the hotheads. Baron de Bode barely 
escaped death at the hands of a band of furious 
rioters who invaded his home at Soultz. So, 
when his wife decided to return to France, he 
thought it was safer to settle her and her family 
at Wissembourg. The baroness remained there 
only a few months. In September, 1793, at the 
time when universal conscription was decreed, 
the spouses found it necessary to flee in disguise 
into the Palatinate. Madame de Bode has given 
in one of her letters a very touching story of 
these tragic days. 

A month later the Allies were conquerors. 
Wurmser carried the lines of Wissembourg; the 
patriots retreated under the walls of Strasburg. 
Our fugitives returned to Soultz. "We shall 
have/' wrote the baroness, "the pleasure of 
becoming Germans again/' The illusion was 
brief. Hoche took command of the French army ; 
though beaten at Kaiserslautern, he recaptured the 
lines of Wissembourg on December 22, 1793, and 
reconquered Alsace. This time all was ended : 
it was necessary to abandon Soultz. The baron 
fled into Baden, the baroness and her children took 
refuge in the convent of Altenberg near Wetzlar. 




Portrait op Hoche. 



The Letters of the Baroness de Bode 217 

And from there she wrote this letter, which we 
must place beside the one we quoted above, in 
which she told so ingenuously her joys as a 
sovereign : 

"We have been lifted very high by fortune only 
to be precipitated so much lower, for at present 
we can no longer have any hope. We have 
lost everything : all our ravishing furniture, all 
our music, our beautiful pianos, several violins, 
among which was a very valuable Cremona, the 
whole of our charming library (all the important 
authors in several languages, more than fifteen hun- 
dred volumes), all our linen, almost all the chil- 
dren's clothes, all my pastimes, our whole collection 
of natural history, and, a thing which I very 
much regret, about twenty sketchbooks of flower 
paintings by myself, the work of a whole summer 
(I painted them with much care and very hand- 
somely, even if I do say it myself, and they have 
been very much admired), two carriages, several 
carts, harnesses, saddles, and all the furnishings of 
the stables ; vessels of pewter, porcelain, crystal, 
quantities of beautiful glasses, two pairs of globes ; 
a very fine collection of geographic maps; in 
short, I can hardly tell you all that we have lost. 
We have only saved a very few things, and those 
by chance. . . . 

"In reading over what I have just written it 



218 The Spell of Alsace 

seems to me nonsensical to mention the loss of 
such things, which are like so many drops of water 
in the sea in comparison with the immense losses 
which we have experienced. : . ." 

We must congratulate ourselves that Madame de 
Bode only noticed what she called her nonsense 
after she had written her letter. Thereby we have 
gained an amusing inventory, thanks to which we 
have been able to enter her house and her existence 
"on the ground floor' 7 ; we know the manner of 
life of the Lord of Soultz. 

"The world is large enough !" wrote the 
courageous Englishwoman, "if we have lost our 
property in one country perhaps we will find a 
better in another." She departed for Russia, and 
obtained from Catherine property on the banks 
of the Dnieper. Her husband died. She settled 
in Finland with her children. But she still 
thought of the property which she had abandoned 
in Alsace, and in 1802 she imagined that the time 
was favorable to make a claim on the French 
government. Then she returned to Soultz with 
her daughter. The property had been seques- 
trated and part of it had been sold. The re- 
mainder, become national property, had been 
leased for a long term of years to the former in- 
tendant of the domain. He was a worthy man 



The Letters of the Baroness de Bode 219 

who welcomed the dispossessed owner and prom- 
ised her his aid. But since the departure of 
Baron de Bode debts had accumulated. The 
creditors showed their teeth. The two women 
feared that they would be thrown into prison and 
fled to Paris. The baroness imagined that her 
English birth would assure her of the protection 
of the English ambassador. But she arrived at 
a moment when relations were strained between 
France and Great Britain. The ambassador 
could do nothing for her. She returned to Russia, 
where she settled down with her children, and 
died in 1812. 

Her son succeeded, after tedious lawsuits, in 
securing the return of the lands, the salt spring, 
and the mine at Soultz. But the creditors were too 
numerous. Everything was sold. 

At the close of the adventure, how is it possible 
to avoid thinking of that sod of grass which the 
King's Commissioner, assisted by M. Rothjacob, 
Bailiff of Soultz, offered to the Baron Auguste de 
Bode, on the day when the latter entered his 
capital, to the sound of bells, and in the midst of 
the blessings of his subjects, male and female t 



XVI 
THE CHATEAU OF REICHSHOFFEN 

IN the midst of a fresh, lovely, and softly- 
undulating champaign, behold a village 
with white fagades and little overhanging 
roofs. The gaiety of a street fair today fills all 
its ways; small merchants have set up their 
booths in every direction; the open windows 
of the inns disclose the tables full of drinkers; 
the crowd of peasants comes and goes before the 
flying horses and the puppet shows. I am at 
Reichshoffen. This word has retained such a 
tragic sound, it evokes to our imagination so 
many heroic and funereal memories, that for a 
moment I can scarcely believe that this hamlet 
of mirth can be the same whence, forty years ago, 
came the first news of our first disaster. . . . 
To tell the truth, the battle which in France is 
known by the name of Reichshoffen was not 
fought at this place. The fight in the morning 
was at Woerth, and in the afternoon at Froesch- 
willer, which is four kilometers from here. It 
was at Morsbronn and in the suburbs of Elsass- 

220 




THE CHATEAU OF REICHSHOFFEK 



The Chateau of Reichshoffen 221 

hausen that the cuirassiers charged and died. I 
have just crossed this battle field, where it is still 
so easy to follow the phases of the combat, for 
monuments and tombs mark the successive posi- 
tions occupied by the two armies. But Reichs- 
hoffen beheld the frightful rout of MacMahon's 
army, and such souvenirs make a sharp contrast 
to the spectacle of smiling nature and the villagers 
fairing. . . . 

At the end of one of the streets a great donjon, 
a pitilessly restored remnant of an ancient strong- 
hold, rises at the entrance of the modern chateau. 
This is instantly recognizable by its noble and 
simple architecture as of the end of the eight- 
eenth century. It is a long structure which was 
formerly flanked by two symmetrical wings, 
each terminated by a Doric colonnade. One of 
these wings has been demolished to allow the sun 
to enter the court of honor; a terrace planted 
with flowers replaces it. There are no sculptures 
upon the bare front, the beauty of which is at- 
tributable to the correctness of its proportions 
and the harmonious distribution of its openings. 
The opposite fagade, facing the park, shows the 
same grandeur and the same sobriety. But on 
this side the picture assumes a marvelous grace 
as one goes away from the building. The park, 
with its grass plots, its running waters, and its 



222 The Spell of Alsace 

clumps of great trees, surrounds the edifice, which 
is wholly built of red sandstone. The autumn 
foliage makes a golden frame for this rose-colored 
castle, before which immense lawns spread their 
carpets of humid green. An admirable picture, 
which in line and color offers us the perfect model 
of a certain type of beauty which we may call 
peculiarly Alsatian. The close accord between 
the house and the landscape, the simple strength 
of the construction, the delicate harmony of the 
greenery with the pink sandstone, unite to form 
the very seduction of Alsace. Nowhere have I 
felt it more clearly. 

Behind these severe facades charming furniture 
and precious paintings show the acme of luxury 
and elegance, and this opposition is another of 
the characteristics of Alsatian taste. Chairs, 
tables, and consoles of the eighteenth century 
still give the apartments their physiognomy of 
long ago. One of the mantels is adorned with 
a magnificent clock, signed Caffieri, the dial of 
which rests on the back of an elephant : it be- 
longed to Marie Antoinette; one of the Swiss 
guards who escaped the massacre wrapped it in 
a sack, carried it to Bale on a barrow, and sold 
it to a Swiss officer who later parted with it to 
one of the proprietors of Reiehshoffen. A few 
fine paintings adorn the salons of the ground 



The Chateau of Reichshoffen 223 

floor : a triptych of the Rhenish school, a sketch 
by Rembrandt, two portraits by Cuyp, a delicious 
little head by Sebastian Bourdon. Yet all these 
works of art are not part of a collection; they 
are the real life and everyday dress of the old and 
magnificent home. 

This noble mansion is still Alsatian, profoundly 
Alsatian, in its history and in the names of those 
who have dwelt there. Reichshoffen belonged in 
turn to the Bishops of Strasburg and the Dukes 
of Lorraine. It was the property of Francis of 
Lorraine ; when he became emperor he sold it to 
John of Dietrich, ironmaster of Niederbronn, who, 
having been ennobled and created a baron of the 
empire by Louis XV, became Lord of Reichshoffen, 
Oberbronn and Niederbronn, Count of the Ban de 
la Roche, Lord of Angeot, etc. 

John of Dietrich preserved only a single tower 
of the old feudal castle and had a new chateau 
built by Salins de Montfort, the same architect 
who a few years later was to reconstruct Saverne 
for the Cardinal de Rohan. Of this house now 
before our eyes he made, thanks to his immense 
fortune, a princely residence. Great festivals 
were held there. The Baroness of Oberkirch has 
left us an amusing story of the jubilations which 
celebrated the strange marriage of the little 
prince of Nassau-Sarrebruck with Mademoiselle 



224 The Spell of Alsace 

de Montbarey. The wife was eighteen years old 
and her husband was twelve. "The whole prov- 
ince and all the neighboring courts were invited; 
it was magnificent. Hunts, banquets and drives 
lasted for three days. M. d'Oberkirch and I 
went there. I met many people whom I knew, 
both German and French. The husband did not 
wish to dance with his wife at the ball ; they had 
to threaten to whip him if he didn't stop making 
a laughing-stock of himself by crying, but instead 
of this they deluged him with filberts, pistachio 
nuts and sweetmeats of all kinds to persuade him 
to dance the minuet with her. He was very much 
smitten with little Louise von Dietrich, a pretty 
child even younger than himself, and he went 
back to her side as soon as he could escape. I 
cannot tell you how much we laughed at the 
appearance of this little booby. " 

Frederick, the son of John of Dietrich, was 
mayor of Strasburg at the time of the Revolution. 
The father was imprisoned and the son sent to 
the scaffold. Reichshoffen was bought at a 
miserable price by a certain Mathieu, who kept 
it until 1811, and luckily did not take it into his 
head to demolish the chateau. He sold it to 
Paul Athanasius Renouard de Bussierre, a man 
from Berri who had settled in Alsace after marry- 
ing Mademoiselle Frederique de Franck, who was 



The Chateau of Reichshoffen 225 

descended by her mother from the family of 
Tiickheim. His oldest son, Theodore de Bussierre, 
succeeded him in the ownership of the chateau. A 
daughter of Theodore de Bussierre married Count 
de Leusse, a member of a family from Dauphiny, 
who in his turn became the master of Reichs- 
hoffen. I dwell upon these genealogical details 
because the example of the families of Bussierre 
and Leusse shows how Alsace has attracted and 
retained so many families which have come dur- 
ing the nineteenth century from other French 
provinces. 

Count de Leusse rendered a brilliant service to 
his adopted country by the improvements which 
he introduced in the management of its agri- 
cultural and woodland resources. He took part 
in the Crimean War and retained a very lively 
taste for military matters. He loved letters and 
history and was one of the most fervent disciples 
of Gobineau (Note 26). After being elected 
deputy in 1869 for the district of Haguenau and 
Wissembourg, Count de Leusse had returned to 
Reichshoffen at the time of the declaration of 
war. He was consequently at home when, after 
the news of the defeat at Wissembourg, Mac- 
Mahon suddenly left Strasburg, concentrated his 
army around Reichshoffen, and established his 
headquarters in the chateau. The marshal spent 



226 The Spell of Alsace 

the night of August 4 in a room on the ground 
floor, and there slept upon a magnificent parade 
bed of Louis XV style : Blucher and Wellington 
had previously occupied the same chamber. 

During the whole of August 5, he reconnoitred 
the country, guided by Count de Leusse; he did 
not believe that the battle was imminent. But 
the forest guards announced that masses of the 
enemy were marching and their reports were dis- 
quieting to the count, who had full confidence 
in the wisdom and experience of these veterans. 
MacMahon passed the following night at Froesch- 
willer and Count de Leusse sought him out 
at daybreak to beg him to refuse to fight, support- 
ing the prayers of Ducrot and de Raoult to the 
same effect. The Marshal was still hesitating 
when they heard explosions : the advance guards 
were engaged. . . . And everyone knows the 
terrible consequences. 

The Count obtained permission to accompany 
the headquarters staff, and remained beside Mac- 
Mahon throughout the day. When the rout 
commenced he hastily returned to Reichshoffen, 
which the German army was about to enter. 
He was mayor of the commune and the Countess 
de Leusse had established a hospital in the chateau. 
The enemy soon appeared in the village streets. 
At the head of a squad of Prussian soldiers, a 



The Chateau of Reichshoffen 227 

young sub-lieutenant, crazy with rage, cried, 
brandishing his saber: "The mayor! where is 
the mayor?" He screamed that some one had 
fired on his men from a window, that he held the 
mayor responsible for the ambush, and that he 
was going to have him shot on the spot. With 
admirable coolness the Count remonstrated to 
this furious being that he was violating the laws 
of war, and that his duty was at the least to try 
him by court-martial. Somewhat intimidated, 
the officer turned to go. But the Count, looking 
him straight in the face, continued: "I have 
been a soldier like yourself, and I have the right 
to tell you that your conduct is a disgrace to the 
shoulder-straps which you wear. You pretend to 
command these men and you are not able to 
master yourself. Officer, you were going to act 
like a private." Then the sub-lieutenant bowed 
his head, broke down, and began to sob. 

Count de Leusse died in 1906. Madame the 
Countess de Leusse and her children still live at 
Reichshoffen, and one may yet breathe in the 
castle of John of Dietrich the sweet and salubrious 
perfume of Alsace. 



XVII 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ART IN 
ALSACE 

WHEN traveling in Alsace, I have often 
admired the monuments and works of 
art of the eighteenth century which are 
there so plentiful : chateaux and houses, churches 
and palaces, wood carvings, furniture, ironwork. 
In no province of France could one, I believe, dis- 
cover more numerous and more precious examples 
of the styles of Louis XV and Louis XVI. 

Astonishment always succeeded my admira- 
tion. Before each of these works, curious to 
know by whom it had been executed and in what 
circumstances, I opened my guide-book like every 
good tourist, but never found there more than a 
dry and brief mention. Frequently the guide- 
book even neglected to mention this church, or 
those wood carvings, the sight of which had en- 
chanted me. I consulted the great works which 
archeologists and historians have written about 
Alsace : they were as silent as my guide. I 
finally questioned Alsatians, who knew and loved 
their country; they tried with obliging zeal to 

228 



Eighteenth Century Art in Alsace 229 

answer me, but ended by confessing their igno- 
rance and told me that in this matter everything 
was yet to be studied and discovered. (Never- 
theless, I must say that they have furnished me 
the little precise information which will follow.) 

Disdain and ignorance are easy to explain. 

They are the consequence of the absurd reaction 
which, during a great part of the nineteenth century, 
turned artists, amateurs and critics against the art 
of the two preceding centuries. Having rehabili- 
tated the works of the Middle Ages, Romanticism 
turned against the Classicists the reproach of 
barbarism which they had so long thrown in the 
teeth of the Gothicists. Today, it is true, these 
aberrations of the archeologists are beginning to 
be unfashionable, and we have arrived at under- 
standing that without ceasing to admire Notre 
Dame, it is possible to feel the beauty of Versailles. 

In Alsace the question of taste is complicated 
by a political question. Since 1871 Germany has 
endeavored to efface from Alsatian memories 
whatever might recall a French past. For thirty 
years Alsace remained silent and terrorized, with- 
out strength to react against the assertions of 
German science and the enterprises of German 
taste. German science proclaimed that the French 
spirit was only frivolity, sensuality, and barefaced 
licentiousness. German taste pronounced that 



230 The Spell of Alsace 

the monuments with which France formerly 
adorned Alsace were beneath contempt, devoid 
of beauty, and unworthy of a great people. When 
they inventoried the treasures of their new con- 
quest, the Germans omitted the noble and delicate 
creations of the artists of the eighteenth century. 
But, since the abolition of the dictatorship, the 
young people whose ideas and work I have already 
described have used the half-liberty allowed them 
by the government to recall to their fellow citizens 
the history and the traditions of their country. 
They regard as sacred the patrimony, the whole 
patrimony, which they have received from their 
ancestors. They consider with the same pride 
and the same piety the old ruined castles, witnesses 
of feudal Alsace, which crown the summits of the 
Vosges ; the elegantly carved houses which were the 
homes of the citizens in the time of the Renais- 
sance ; the peasant dwellings whose great gables, 
garlanded with vines and capped with tiles, give 
so much grace and picturesqueness to the villages ; 
and lastly, those harmonious architectural re- 
mains, those fine sculptures, with which the 
eighteenth century enriched their province. They 
feel that this diversity makes the originality and 
glory of Alsace. We must count on them to save 
from forgetfulness the makers of the monuments 
disdained by German historians and critics. 



Eighteenth Century Art in Alsace 231 

From the Peace of Westphalia, which gave 
France Upper and Lower Alsace, to the Peace of 
Ryswick, which, in 1697, ended the independence 
of Strasburg, until then a free imperial city, the 
country, ravaged by the passage of armies, had 
not been able to repair the frightful destruction 
of the Thirty Years' War. The seventeenth cen- 
tury left to Alsace no other monument than cita- 
dels, barracks, and fortifications. The fields were 
waste, the towns deserted ; frightful distress held 
sway between the Vosges and the Rhine. "The 
population," wrote in 1797 Marquis de La Grange, 
the French intendant, " whose natural impulse is 
joy, since one saw formerly in the province only 
violins and dances, has been reduced by the wars 
to two thirds of its former number. We find in 
ancient registers that before the great German 
wars the number of villages, families, and fire- 
sides of Upper and Lower Alsace amounted to a 
third more than at present. . . ." 

The Peace of Ryswick marks the end of the 
miseries of Alsace. With peace began an era of 
prosperity. The country was repeopled by im- 
migration. Agriculture and commerce revived. 
The violins were tuned, and the dances recom- 
menced. Soon the architects and the artists set 
to work. And French art penetrated Alsace. 



XVIII 

THE CHATEAUX OF THE CARDINALS 
OF ROHAN 

THE first sponsors of French taste in 
Alsace were the four Cardinals de Ro- 
han, who succeeded each other in the 
episcopal see of Strasburg from 1704 to the 
Revolution. 

Sovereigns of more than one hundred and 
twenty towns and villages, they were in a cer- 
tain sense the ambassadors of Alsace at the 
court of France, and more than once they de- 
fended its privileges. 

None of these four prelates was remarkable for 
his talents or his virtues. They were grand 
seigneurs, proud of their birth, of their mag- 
nificence and of their prodigality. Their man- 
ners were far from evangelical. They were but 
mediocre theologians. But they were endowed 
with that air of grandeur and benevolence which 
so long saved the French nobility from unpopu- 
larity. They fulfilled with good grace and inimi- 
table magnificence the rites of aristocratic life. 

232 




PORTRAIT OF CARDINAL ARMAND GASTON DE ROHAN-SOUBISE 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 233 

The episcopal palace of Strasburg was built by 
Armand Gaston de Rohan-Soubise, the first of ^ 

the four Cardinals de Rohan, who, from uncle to 
nephew, succeeded each other in the bishopric of 
Strasburg in the eighteenth century. 

This Rohan was scarcely fifteen years old when 
Madame de Sevigne had already called him, "that 
beautiful abbe, so beautiful and too beautiful. " 
In a celebrated portrait of the cardinal, Saint- 
Simon wrote: "He was rather tall, a little too 
fat, with the face of Cupid (and, beyond its 
singular beauty, his countenance had all the 
possible but most natural graces, together with 
something of the imposing and still more of the 
interesting), an admirable facility of speech and 
a marvelous ability for keeping all the advan- 
tages which he could obtain from his principality 
and his purple without showing either affectation 
or pride or embarrassment either for himself or 
others. . . ." Do not believe that Saint-Simon 
was infatuated. A young officer, Marquis de 
Valfons, who saw the cardinal at Saverne two 
years before he died, wrote in his Souvenirs : 
"The beauty of his smiling countenance inspired 
confidence. He had the true physiognomy of 
the man destined to command ; his features 
always had the air which makes one adore; a 
glance, which cost him nothing, was a favor." 



234 The Spell of Alsace 

This beautiful cardinal, a friend of literature, 
and a true connoisseur of works of art, left the 
spiritual care of his diocese "to a holy and mitred 
valet, paid to lay on hands." (Here we recognize 
again the style of Saint-Simon.) He was a 
Molinist and was reputed to be the chief of the 
bishops who were eager to accept the bull Uni- 
genitus ; but religious disputes did not interest 
him. "He lent," say the Secret Memoirs, "only 
his name, his palace and his table to the prelates 
of his party," but this was not a bad way of help- 
ing a cause . . . even a theological one. It would 
also not be wise to believe that the magnificence 
displayed at Saverne and at Strasburg by Car- 
dinal de Rohan were without utility in the po- 
litical task which the King of France had in 
Alsace. When the cardinal died, Louis XV is 
said to have exclaimed : "I have just had a veri- 
table loss in the person of Cardinal de Rohan; 
he was a great lord, an excellent bishop, and a 
good citizen." A great lord? If the witness of 
Saint-Simon is not sufficient study the admirable 
portrait by Rigaud. An excellent bishop? This 
meant to the king's mind a bishop whom the 
members of parliament detested with all their 
hearts. A good citizen? It was true, for France 
and Alsace reaped the harvest of the magnificence 
of the cardinal. 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 235 

Like all the great lords who are smitten with 
the taste for luxury and ostentation, he was pos- 
sessed of the passion for building. Besides, he 
had a good example to follow, being one of the 
sons of that Frangois de Rohan-Soubise who in 
1697 bought one of the vastest and oldest homes 
of the Marais, the Hotel de Guise, demolished it 
and had constructed in its place by the architect 
Delamaire the admirable structure which today 
shelters the national archives : the architect 
Boffrand, the painter Natoire, the sculptors 
Adam the Elder and Lemoine joined in decorat- 
ing the apartments ; Robert Le Lorrain carved the 
statues of the portal and the fagade. 

Armand Gaston de Rohan, named at first 
coadjutor of the Cardinal Egon de Furstenberg, 
became Bishop of Strasburg in 1704: he was 
thirty years old. His first care was to have 
built by Delamaire a house in the neighborhood 
of the Hotel de Soubise ; it is the Hotel de Rohan 
of the Rue Vieille-du-Temple, which was usually 
called in the eighteenth century the Hotel de 
Strasbourg. The cardinal employed also Robert 
Le Lorrain, who executed, above the door of the 
stables, the superb high relief The Horses of the 
Sun. 

At Strasburg the episcopal palace had threat- 
ened to collapse for a long time before the cardinal 



236 The Spell of Alsace 

undertook to replace it by a sumptuous palace. 
He dreamed of it from the beginning of his episco- 
pate : in 1704 he bought two houses adjacent to 
the old buildings. But he was obliged to post- 
pone his project. The magistracy refused to allow 
him to exercise episcopal jurisdiction within the 
limits of the future palace. He had to secure the 
intervention of the king before this body would 
accept this diminution of the ancient municipal 
privileges. Then the cardinal, to obtain the 
funds necessary for the construction, had to ask 
and obtain the right to levy on his diocese an 
annual tax of 12,000 livres. The building was not 
commenced until 1731. 

The history of the chateau of the Rohans was 
almost unknown until very recently. 

The Bibliotheque Nationale possesses a large 
number of plans and manuscripts derived from 
the studio of Robert de Cotte. But these papers, 
of the highest interest for the study of French 
architecture in the first half of the eighteenth 
century, were separated among the different de- 
partments of the library, and in each department 
had been classed into different series. It was 
therefore almost impossible to make use of them 
until M. Pierre Marcel had the idea of making 
and publishing an Inventory of the Manuscripts 




STRASBURG CATHEDRAL 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 237 

of Robert de Cotte and of Jules Robert de Cotte, 
preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale. He added 
analyses, notes, and elucidations. It is now per- 
fectly easy to obtain and utilize the manuscripts 
concerning the construction of the chateau of the 
Rohans (Note 27). 

Thanks to these documents, we are certain that 
the author of the plans of the chateau was de 
Cotte. The edifice has often been attributed to 
the architect Massol. We shall see what part he 
played. But the building was constructed in 
accordance with the designs of Robert de Cotte ; 
it was he who chose the contractors and verified 
the specifications. 

When he was commissioned by Cardinal de 
Rohan to draw up the plans of the new episcopal 
palace in Strasburg, Robert de Cotte was ap- 
proaching the end of a glorious career. He was 
almost seventy-five years old. 

He was born at Paris about 1656, the son and 
the grandson of architects. His grandfather, 
Fremin de Cotte, had been employed as an en- 
gineer at the siege of La Rochelle and had written 
a book entitled : Short and Easy Explanation of 
the Five Orders of Architecture. Robert learned 
the first elements f of his art in his father's studio, 
and then became the pupil of Jules Hardouin 
Mansart, the architect of Versailles. A close 



238 The Spell of Alsace 



friendship soon bound him to his master, than 
whom he was younger by only ten years. He 
married Catherine Bodin, sister of Anne Bodin, 
Mansart's wife. 

During the first half of his life he worked only 
under Mansart's orders, interpreting his plans 
and supervising building operations. He collab- 
orated in this way in the two masterpieces of his 
master ; the Church of the Invalides and the Chapel 
of Versailles. After Mansart's death he inherited 
his brother-in-law's position and became the 
king's first architect, intendant of his building 
operations, and director of the mint. Among 
his works we may mention, at Versailles, the 
Ionic colonnade of the Trianon ; at Paris, the 
choir of Notre Dame and numerous private 
dwellings, including the Hotel de La Vrilliere (at 
present the Bank of France), the Hotel d'Estrees, 
the Hotel du Lude ; in the provinces, the episcopal 
palace at Chalons and that of Verdun ; abroad, the 
Hotel of Thurn and Taxis at Frankfort, the 
Chateau at Bonn for the Elector of Cologne. . . . 

"He was gifted," said d'Argenville, in his Lives 
of the Famous Architects, "with an easy imagina- 
tion, vivified and regulated by healthy judgment 
and assiduous labor. ..." This is indeed the 
man of whom Rigaud made the admirable portrait 
which may be seen in the Louvre, a portrait from 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 239 

which Drevet made such a charming engraving. 
Observe the delicacy of the countenance, the free- 
dom of the posture, the flame of the glance. This 
face reflects at once reason, spirit, and passion. 
These are not the features of a genius, but the 
ease, surety, and fineness of an inventive and 
prudent artist, of a man full of resources, adroit, 
laborious, and especially very thoughtful. It is 
said that he conversed agreeably and was given 
to charming repartee, which once brought him 
the favor of Louis XIV. One day in the park 
of one of the royal dwellings, de Cotte had had a 
new alley cut. Mansart excelled in thus creating 
charming viewpoints. De Cotte had wished to 
imitate him, but made a mistake in drawing 
the plan so that his alley opened in front of a mill, 
a common windmill. Louis XIV, happening to 
promenade in the park, expressed his surprise at 
this somewhat too rustic perspective. But de 
Cotte anticipated the king's displeasure: "Sire, 
reassure yourself/' he said, "Mansart will have it 
gilded!" 

Together with Boftrand, Oppenort, and Las- 
surance, Robert de Cotte was one of the creators 
of the style which has often but too narrowly 
been designated as the style of the Regency, but 
which was in reality the style of all French decora- 
tion from 1700 to 1750 ; we do not say of archi- 



£40 The Spell of Alsace 

tecture, for the exterior lines of buildings have 
remained almost the same during the seventeenth, 
eighteenth, and even the nineteenth centuries; 
the employment of the classic orders unifies all 
French architecture since the Renaissance. But 
during the first years of the eighteenth century, 
everything suddenly changed in the ornamenta- 
tion and arrangement of interiors. 

A sentence of Vauvenargues expresses in a word 
the principle of the new style: "Some authors 
treat morality in the way the new architecture 
is treated, where ease is sought above every- 
thing/' In the seventeenth century, in imitation 
of the Italian palaces, French houses presented 
only vast apartments, spacious halls, " galleries 
running to a vanishing point, staircases of ex- 
traordinary grandeur." No private entrances. 
Nothing was accorded to comfort. Everything 
is theatrical in taste; everything is inspired by 
Versailles, and seems to conform to the rigors of 
royal etiquette. It was against this majestic 
and grand art, ill according with the requirements 
of private life, that French taste commenced to 
react about 1700. Architects and decorators then 
tried to arrange the interiors more comfortably 
and to ornament them less pompously. "This 
change in our interiors/' wrote the architect 
Patte, who fifty years later told of this transforma- 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 241 

tion of taste, "also caused the substitution for the 
heavy ornaments with which they were overloaded, 
of all kinds of decorations of light cabinet work, 
full of taste, and varied in a thousand different 
ways. . . . They covered the open beams of the 
floors, and thus formed those ceilings which give 
so much grace to rooms, and which were decorated 
with friezes and all kinds of pleasing ornaments. 
In place of the pictures and the enormous bas- 
reliefs which had been placed on the chimney- 
breasts, they decorated them with mirrors, which, 
by their reduplications of images with those op- 
posite them, formed moving pictures which en- 
larged and animated the apartments, and gave 
them an air of taste and magnificence which was 
previously lacking." This need for comfort in- 
volved another innovation, which forms the 
characteristic of the style of Louis XV. Every- 
where curved lines replaced the straight lines of 
the previous century. All the corners are rounded 
off and the house thus becomes more habitable. 
With a delicate instinct for harmony, the cabinet- 
makers, the designers, the bronze workers, com- 
prehended that these curves must be repeated in 
every part of the decoration and the furnishing, 
in the form of furniture, mantelpieces, candle- 
sticks, door-knobs and espagnolettes. But at the 
same time the architects remained scrupulously 



242 The Spell of Alsace 

faithful to the rules of all architecture ; they did 
not permit the general equilibrium or the sym- 
metry of the paneling to be disturbed. The 
creators of the new style are not responsible for 
the aberrations into which their clumsy imitators 
outside of France allowed themselves to fall. 
The barbarous — and sometimes delicious — fan- 
tasies of the Rococo are but counterfeits of their 
ingenious elegancies. 

Such was the art practiced by Robert de Cotte 
with rare virtuosity. And of this art one can 
see no more perfect model than the " grand apart- 
ment 7 ' of the chateau of Strasburg. 

Robert de Cotte did not come to Strasburg. 
The French architects who worked for foreign 
princes in the eighteenth century rarely left home. 
The Cardinal de Rohan sent a plan of the ground 
to de Cotte. He sent from Paris the plans and 
elevations of the edifice; he left to a contractor 
of his own choice the care of directing the works 
and providing the details of the construction, but 
he was informed of the bids of the subcontractors 
and he made out the specifications. We find in 
his papers several memoranda relating to the cost 
of building materials and wages in Alsace. 

Among these same documents there is a letter 
from one of his pupils, Le Chevalier, who was at 




PORTRAIT OF ROBERT DE COTTE 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 243 

Strasburg in 1730, at the period when de Cotte 
had just sent his plans to the cardinal, a letter 
which I am going to quote in its entirety, for it 
gives us much information upon the relations of 
architects to their pupils in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, while it also introduces to us a curiously 
pushing personage. 

" Monsieur, 

"With the permission which you have had the 
kindness to give me, I have the honor of inform- 
ing you of my conduct since I arrived here. 

"M. de Brou [Marshal de Brou was the king's 
intendant in Alsace], from whom I have* had the 
kindest protection, and who desires to contribute 
to my fortune in various fashions, has had the 
kindness himself to present me to all the prin- 
cipal persons in the town, after which he has 
induced the Prince of Birkenfeld to allow me to 
prepare sketches for a hotel to be constructed 
upon a plot of ground belonging to him, and 
situated on the quay which is called Birkenfeld, 
opposite the intendant 's office. This plot is very 
irregular. Nevertheless I have given all the care 
which I could to make a plan which proved pleas- 
ing to the prince, the princess, and all the lords 
who have seen it. This work has induced a cer- 
tain confidence on their part, which has persuaded 
them to keep me here. 



244 The Spell of Alsace 



" After this plan I made one for Monsieur the 
Pretor [he means the royal pretor] adapted to 
two different plots of which I expect him to choose 
one or the other to start the work. . . . [This Le 
Chevalier, it is easy to see, had not lost any time 
since he had been in Strasburg.] 

"M. de Brou has had the kindness to escort me 
to Saverne, and has done me the honor to present 
me to Monsignor the Cardinal. I have shown 
him the plans for the Prince of Birkenfeld, with 
which he was well pleased. He directed M. de 
Ravannes to show me his palace. . . . [The Abbe 
de Ravannes played an important role in the 
household of the Cardinal ; he was a sort of in- 
tendant, charged with the reception of guests and 
the care of the furniture storeroom, and I may 
refer you to the pleasant page which the Marquis 
of Valfons has given him in his Souvenirs.] 

"He directed de Ravannes to show me his 
palace, in which I found such beautiful things, 
outside and inside, that I begged from His High- 
ness permission to return, in order that I might 
retain a more vivid remembrance of it. I re- 
turned on a second trip with M. de Brou. His 
Highness showed me a plan of yours for his bath- 
ing pavilion. [De Cotte had already been con- 
sulted by the Cardinal on the subject of various 
embellishments for the chateau of Saverne.] His 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 245 

intention was that this pavilion should not be as 
wide as the alley. He requested me, together 
with M. de Brou, to make him a new plan, in 
accordance with this intention. [How delicate 
Le Chevalier's situation became at this point ! 
He could not disobey the Cardinal, and, on the 
other hand, he had the appearance of entering 
into rivalry with his master. He extricated him- 
self rather adroitly from this difficult position.] 

"I made the plan, out of obedience, and not 
to displease you, not believing that His Highness 
would dwell for a moment on this plan. I was 
very much surprised when he did me the honor 
of telling me that he had sent it to you. I will 
accept the emendations which you may desire to 
make upon the plan as a mark of kindness on 
your part, to which I will do myself the honor of 
conforming, because I have a perfect veneration 
for everything which comes from you, and for my 
principal aim in life the ambition to be able to 
execute some of your plans and render you an 
exact and faithful account of it. 

"His Highness has returned to me your plans 
for his episcopal palace [after such a formal ex- 
pression it cannot be doubted that de Cotte was 
indeed the author of the plans preserved in the 
Bibliotheque Nationale], which I am studying 
every day, in order, when they are executed, to 



246 The Spell of Alsace 

be in a position to have them followed as perfectly 
as they deserve. 

"The Count of Hanau was going to execute a 
plan which M. Perdrigue, the second engineer, 
had made him. All his advisers were charitably 
opposed to it, and Monsignor the Cardinal said in 
full company that this plan had neither rhyme 
nor reason, and that if he had it executed he would 
have it raided by the police. At the same time 
he and the Marshal [de Brou] had the kindness 
to introduce me to the Count, for whom I am 
going to build ; but the plan has not yet been 
decided upon ; but I am sure I will make a good 
one. [This Le Chevalier was decidedly favored 
by luck. And even this is not all.] 

"Monsignor the Archbishop of Vienne [Henri 
Oswald de La Tour d'Auvergne, Archbishop of 
Vienne, was Grand Dean of the Chapter of Stras- 
burg] has given me an order to make a plan to 
elongate at his expense, with the consent of the 
canons, the choir of the cathedral. The Sieur 
Saussard has handed me one of your plans which 
cannot be executed, because they did not send 
you the plan of the church. The staircases 
would end directly against the pillar, and block 
the door of the sacristy, as may be seen by the 
enclosed plan. [Such mischances could have not 
been rare when architects thus worked at a dis- 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 247 

tance.] I have had constructed of planks the 

elongation of the choir, the steps and the altars, 

as they were marked on your plan. . . . Mon- 

signor the Cardinal must officiate on All Saints' 

Day and will thus see the effect better than on 

the plan; if these gentlemen desire to increase 

or diminish what is on this plan, I will let them 

have it done by anyone whom they may 

choose. . . . 

"If you desire, Monsieur, to contribute to my 

fortune, you will oblige a man of honor who will 

be grateful all his life. You have only to take 

the trouble to write : ' I know Le Chevalier. He 

is an excellent person.' M. de Brou, who is 

going to Paris, will be very grateful to you for it. 

I have the honor to be, with profound respect, 

your obedient servant, 

"Le Chevalier. 

"Strasburg, this 28th of October, 1730." 

What happened? Did Robert de Cotte find 
his pupil very prompt in changing his plans? 
Did he judge that it was unnecessary to con- 
tribute to the fortune of such an enterprising 
young man? It appears that he did not write 
the words of recommendation solicited by Le 
Chevalier ; for, a few months later, the plans and 
specifications of Robert de Cotte were in the 
hands of another architect called Massol, who 



248 The Spell of Alsace 

directed the work. He also carried out the con- 
struction of various buildings in Strasburg. Car- 
dinal de Rohan, it is said, recognized the fact that 
he had infinitely more taste than the German 
architects. 

And there was no further question of Le 
Chevalier. 

The construction of the chateau was commenced 
in 1731, under the direction of Massol, from the 
plans of Robert de Cotte. These plans are pre- 
served in the Bibliotheque Nationale. By refer- 
ring to them and then viewing the edifice in its 
present state we see that the original conception 
has undergone only two modifications. 

The first dates from the time of the original 
building. Cardinal de Rohan wished to add to 
the palace a structure to house the chapel and 
the library : it is a pavilion adjacent to the 
chateau, with high arched windows opening upon 
the 111. The grace and ease with which the lines 
of the two edifices are harmonized show the skill 
of the architect. Robert de Cotte had no part 
in this addition, for no trace of it is found among 
his papers. It is also necessary to notice here a 
curious peculiarity of the architecture. In the 
Rue du Musee, above a low door, the side wall of 
the library shows a sort of corbeled bay-window ; 
this is doubtless a souvenir of those charming 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan £49 

oriels which decorate the fagades of all the old 
houses of Strasburg. De Cotte, who never came 
to Alsace, would not have imagined anything of 
this kind. This part of the chateau seems there- 
fore to be entirely the invention of Massol, whom 
a long sojourn in Strasburg had familiarized with 
the forms of Alsatian architecture. 

Another change was made in the primitive 
plan during the second half of the nineteenth 
century. On both sides of the court rose a wall 
pierced with a large bay, which gave access on 
the right to the court of the commons, on the left 
to that of the stables; on the rest of the wall 
were constructed false arcades. Later, behind 
these walls there were put up buildings sur- 
mounted by terraces, and the false arcades were 
replaced by windows. This work has not affected 
the charming design of the court of honor, but it 
has shortened and narrowed the court of the 
stables. 

We do not know what the building cost. We 
possess two estimates : one amounts to 274,968 
livres, the other to 316,926 livres. But they do 
not include the cabinet work, nor the mirrors, 
nor the sculptures, nor the paintings, nor the 
gilding, nor the marble work, nor the windows. 
They were made before the beginning of the 
work : hence they should have been exceeded. 



250 The Spell of Alsace 

That they were, and greatly. In 1740 nothing 
was yet finished, but the expense had already 
amounted to more than 700,000 livres, and the 
cardinal had to ask an extension for six years 
of the annual tax of 12,000 livres which his di- 
ocesans had paid since 1730 for the construction 
of the episcopal palace. 

We have not been able to discover the names of 
all the collaborators of Robert de Cotte and Mas- 
sol. Some of the interior paintings were, it is 
said, executed by Parrocel. As to the sculptures, 
they are all, or nearly all, by Robert Le Lorrain. 

There exists in the archives of the department 
of Bas-Rhin a very interesting piece bearing this 
title : Description of the Works of Sculpture which 
the late Monsieur Lelorrain, Professor of the Royal 
Academy of Painting and Sculpture, made during 
Several Years at the Chateau of Saverne, there 
Completed in 1723, and at the Episcopal Palace 
of Strasburg in 1735, 1736, 1737, Works worthy 
of being Admired and of giving Honor to the Mem- 
ory of this Great Man. The works of Le Lorrain 
enumerated and described in this document are : 
The keystones of the arcades upon the fagade of 
the principal entrance (these are admirable masks, 
representing the features of certain characters of 
the Old Testament) ; the two beautiful figures of 
Religion and Clemency which surmount the en- 




PORTRAIT OF ROBERT LE LORRAIN 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 251 

tablature of the portal (the face of Clemency is 
endowed with inexpressible grace) ; the groups of 
children and the vases which decorate the same 
entablature; the Charity which ornaments the 
tympan of the pavilion at the right of the en- 
trance (the design alone is by Le Lorrain, the 
sculpture was executed by a Sieur Paule) ; the 
keystones of the nine windows of the facade of 
the castle toward the courtyard; the trophies 
which decorate the triangular pediment of the 
edifice over the courtyard, and the figures which 
surmount them, Strength and Prudence (Strength 
was completely restored a few years ago) ; the 
two angels which crowned the great window of 
the library (having been made of copper, they 
were melted down in 1793). 

In this catalogue we find neither the keystones 
of the ground floor arcades on the fagade above 
the 111 (they are exquisite, especially the adorable 
mask of a woman of almost Gothic grace, carved 
upon the chapel), nor the horses' heads which 
ornament the walls of the commons and the 
stables. Nevertheless, these sculptures are in 
Le Lorrain's manner; they were doubtless for- 
gotten by the author of the description, unless 
they were executed by a pupil according to the 
designs, and after the death, of the master. 

How well this art of Le Lorrain harmonized 



252 The Spell of Alsace 

with that of Robert de Cotte! The same fa- 
cility, the same elegance, the same spirit. These 
two Parisians of Paris were made to work to- 
gether. 

The successors of Armand Gaston de Rohan, — 
Francois Armand de Rohan-Soubise-Ventadour, 
Louis Constantin de Rohan-Guemenee-Mont- 
bazon, and Louis Edouard de Rohan-Guemenee, — 
dwelt in the episcopal palace whenever they came 
to Strasburg. They did not come there very 
often. When they were in Alsace they preferred 
Saverne, which, with its gardens, its waters, its 
hunt, its vast stables, and its numerous apart- 
ments, was better fitted for court life. 

The last of the Cardinals of Rohan, the Car- 
dinal of the affair of the diamond necklace, sur- 
passed in splendor and prodigality all the prelates 
who had preceded him at Strasburg. He over- 
whelmed the Baroness of Oberkirch by the luxury 
of his vestments, the magnificence of his house- 
hold, the charm of his conversation; and the 
Memoirs of this brilliant woman must be read if 
we desire to picture the life of other days in the 
" grand apartment" of the chateau of Strasburg. 
"His eminence received us in his episcopal palace, 
which was worthy of a sovereign. His household 
expenses were ruinous and unbelievable. I will 
tell only one thing, which will give an idea of the 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 253 

rest. He had no less than fourteen stewards and 
twenty-five valets de chambre. Judge ! it was 
three o'clock in the afternoon, on the eve of the 
Octave of All Saints ; the Cardinal emerged from 
his chapel in a cassock of scarlet watered silk, 
and a surplice of English point lace of incalculable 
value. He carried in his hand an illuminated 
missal, a family heirloom of unique antiquity and 
magnificence; he would not deign to carry a 
printed book. He came to us with a gallantry 
and politeness of the highest good breeding, which 
I have rarely met anywhere. . . ." And how 
living and dramatic are the scenes in which the 
baroness shows us the empire exercised by Cagli- 
ostro over the credulous Cardinal in this very 
chateau of Strasburg. 

The Cardinal de Rohan protested to the Con- 
stituent Assembly against all the decrees relative 
to ecclesiastical property, then crossed the Rhine 
and took refuge at Ettenheim. On August 8, 
1791, the chateau was sold as the property of an 
emigre. The city of Strasburg paid 129,000 livres 
for it, for a mayoralty. But the furniture re- 
mained in the apartments for two years longer. 
The authorities demanded that it be removed; 
they wrote to the district administrators: "As 
for ourselves, we attach no value to sumptuous 
furnishings which contrast with republican sim- 



254 The Spell of Alsace 

plicity, and are offensive to the economy which 
the municipality must exercise in its administra- 
tion." Nevertheless, when they were sold the 
city took care to purchase the very objects which 
formed the decoration of the palace : the mirrors, 
the paintings, the tapestries, the antique busts, 
the Chinese and Japanese vases, the bookcases of 
the library. Unfortunately the Revolution caused 
some irreparable damage. The portraits of the 
bishops which ornamented one of the apartments 
were burned. The two copper angels which were 
over the great windows of the library were sent 
to the melting pot. The escutcheon of Rohan 
carved over the main doorway was shattered. It 
is true that upon the entablature of this same 
doorway there was erected on the Twelfth of 
Fructidor of the Year II, a Liberty by Etienne 
Malade, a sculptor of Mayence. 

In 1806, the city gave the chateau to the 
Emperor, and Napoleon resided in this imperial 
palace on his return from Germany. Festivals 
were then given whose programme recalls that of 
the fetes formerly given in honor of Louis XV. 
Their remembrance has been preserved by a series 
of engravings from pencil drawings by Zix, which 
lack neither grace nor spirit. One of them repre- 
sents the procession of the guilds of Strasburg 
upon the terrace above the 111. Napoleon 




PORTRAIT OF NAPOLEON 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 255 

has replaced Louis XV at the window of the 
chateau. 

In 1832, the palace, first episcopal, later im- 
perial, then royal, was removed from the civil 
list and returned to the city, which again got rid 
of it under the Second Empire by giving it to 
Napoleon III. From 1871 to 1895 it housed the 
University Library, whose installation was the 
cause of serious damage to the ceilings and wain- 
scotings. 

At present the first floor of the chateau is 
occupied by the Museum of Paintings and the 
Cabinet of Engravings. As to the grand apart- 
ment of the cardinals, the only one whose decora- 
tion is precious, it is used for various exhibitions. 

A part of the chateau has been invaded by the 
Department of Historic Monuments, which uses 
it for offices and storehouses. It has not only 
filled up the courtyard with Roman, Merovingian, 
and Carlovingian remains, which make the most 
ludicrous appearance in the midst of buildings of 
the eighteenth century, but it has invaded the 
two most beautiful halls of the palace, the library 
and the chapel, and has turned them into a store- 
house for brick and old stone, and one must say 
that this is a very pleasing way of furthering the 
conservation of a historic monument. 

This chateau is one of the most marvelous and 



Z56 The Spell of Alsace 

most finished examples of a princely residence 
built in the midst of a city, without the decoration 
of a garden. 

The door which opens upon the square, with 
its leaves of sculptured wood, the interior gallery 
which leads to the two pavilions, the form of the 
courtyard and its fine proportions, the noble 
fagade of the palace with its pediment and its 
two allegorical statues, the platforms which, at 
the angles of the courtyard, give access to the 
two vestibules, the majestic fagade which over- 
looks the courtyard facing the 111, the very choice 
of materials, the gray stone of the principal fa- 
gades which harmonizes so well with the pink 
sandstone used in the other parts of the building, 
all these features complete an incomparable char- 
acter of grandeur and perfection. The edifice is 
almost completely preserved in its essential parts. 

But what desolation when we enter the mag- 
nificent rooms of the ground floor ! The work of 
the architect remains intact : the vestibule, with 
its softly curved lines, the great hall of the Synod, 
with its arcades, the long series of salons, the ad- 
mirable library communicating with the chapel, 
this whole apartment of truly royal beauty still 
makes us wonder, in spite of the lamentable condi- 
tion to which it is abandoned. But some of the 
carvings are shattered, others have rotted, the 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 257 

ceilings are dilapidated, the shutters are broken 
and carry traces of the bombardment of Stras- 
burg, the wall paintings have been torn down, 
and whole panels of the wainscot have been 
destroyed ! 

Cardinal Egon de Furstenberg undertook the 
construction of the chateau of Saverne from 
the plans of an Italian, Thomas Comacio. His 
successor, the first of the Cardinals de Rohan, who 
built the chateau of Strasburg, decided to complete 
the edifice, and Le Lorrain worked here also. He 
carved the bas-reliefs of the grand salon, and two 
sphinxes larger than life, "one with hair dressed 
in the Greek style and the other in German 
style," which were placed on either side of the 
steps leading from the chateau toward the garden. 
Of these sculptures, as of the palace which they 
ornamented, nothing remains. The chateau of 
Saverne was destroyed by fire in 1779. 

We have only an engraving to show us the 
appearance of the burned chateau. But con- 
temporaries have left us charming relations of the 
life led by the guests at Saverne. Let us first 
listen to the Marquis de Valfons, who was re- 
ceived by the Cardinal in 1741. The immensity 
of the edifice surprised him greatly, for it con- 
tained seven hundred beds. There were one 



258 The Spell of Alsace 

hundred and eighty horses in the stables, and 
"carriages at will." The greatest liberty reigned 
in the chateau, and every one lived there just as 
he desired. "With such a master of the house, 
all is happiness; so the temple never emptied, 
and there was no matron or maid of good family 
who did not dream of Saverne. I remarked that 
everywhere there was good advice, even above the 
doors, where there was as a legend a Latin word, 
suadere, which means persuade. Every one paid 
heed to this suggestion, and often success followed 
desire. I have seen the most wonderful hunts 
there ; six hundred peasants arranged in line, 
forming a row of beaters a league in length, cover- 
ing an immense territory as they advanced, scream- 
ing at the top of their voices, beating the woods and 
the shrubbery with poles." 

Do these not suggest little pictures composed 
by Lancret, to be placed in the sinuous frame of a 
Louis XV wood carving ? 

"They made three battues in this fashion until 
one o'clock in the afternoon, when the company, 
women and men, gathered under a beautiful tent 
on the edge of a stream, in some delicious spot; 
there was served an exquisite dinner, seasoned 
with much gaiety; and as it was necessary that 
everybody should be happy there were tables 
placed on the grass for all the peasants. . . . 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 9,59 

When they had rested enough, and the heat had 
abated a little, every one went to take new posi- 
tions and the battue recommenced. Every one 
chose his own spot to put himself on watch, and 
for fear that the ladies should be frightened if 
they were left alone, they always left each one 
of them with the gentleman whom she hated the 
least to reassure her. Every one was imperatively 
ordered not to leave his position except at a cer- 
tain signal, in order to avoid accidents from gun- 
shots ; everything was foreseen, for with this order, 
it became impossible that anyone should be sur- 
prised. It appeared to me that the women whom 
I had oftenest heard finding fault with hunts, liked 
this one very much. When the day was ended 
they gave good pay to every peasant, who only 
asked to have the chance to do it again, as did the 
ladies." 

A poet, a table companion of the bishop, is 
going to introduce us to the intimacy of this little 
court, more worldly than ecclesiastical. This 
poet is the Abbe* Grandidier, who was later the 
austere historian of the church of Strasburg (Note 
28). But then he was twenty years old. They 
found him, at Saverne, "the most amiable, the 
best instructed and the most beautiful of men." 
All the women doted on him: the Marquise de 
Salle, Christine de Saxe, Abbess of Remiremont, 



260 The Spell of Alsace 

the Princess de Rohan-Rochefort, for whom he 
rhymed a charming fable, a certain Madame de 
P . . . . , to whom was addressed this gallant 

prayer : 

Indulgent to my youth, 

You praise me out of measure 
For songs my lazy muse 

Dictated for your pleasure. 

You wound my tender soul 

By nattering my vain song, 
Yet doubt I constant am : 

Be sure I'll love you long. 

I seek no laurels now ; 

I love with twenty's heat ; 
My poems are but my plea : 

Enchain me at thy feet. 

Judge my weak verse with scorn, 
But crown my locks with may ; 

Let Hymen's myrtles twined 
Conjoin our hearts alway. 

Glory is scorned by youth ; 

Sans love's delights 'tis poor ; 
Give the love-song less praise, 

But give love to your wooer. 

And Grandidier, having been granted the favors 
which he asked, thanked her in this quatrain : 

To the same upon a kiss which she had given to 
the author, after the reading of his song. 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 261 

Alain Chartier slept, as the books tell the story, 
When a princess gave him a sweet kiss for his glory ; 
When I sang you a song, you gave me a sweeter, 
And you kept me awake as reward for my meter. 

Madame de P. . . . was, it appears, of an age 
which rendered this frivolity innocent. We can 
also, for the same reason, see only a poet's fancy 
in The Reflections of a Young Antiquary, addressed 
to the Countess de Brionne : 

Greek maids unveiled their charms to art, 
Which Grecian sculptors modeled fair, 

But every curve of those sweet frames 
Is far surpassed by yours when bare. 

So, princess, in our hours of love, 
When pleasure draws me to your arms, 

I scorn the statues of the past ; 
I find in you all classic charms. 

Is it not true that the very sound of the little 
verses of the little abbe suffices to evoke all the 
gallant images, all the mythologies, with which 
the painters and the sculptors of the Rohans 
adorned the gardens, the apartments, and the 
galleries of Saverne? 

After the Frenchman de Valfons and the Al- 
satian Grandidier, here is a German. 

On a beautiful summer day in the year 1770, 
three young students who had taken their degrees 
at the University of Strasburg conceived the idea 



262 The Spell of Alsace 

of visiting Saverne. Two of them were from 
Lower Alsace, and the third from Frankfort. 
Later the latter thus told his impressions : 

"With two of my associates, my good friends 
Engelbach and Weyland, both sons of Lower 
Alsace, I rode to Saverne, and in the fine weather 
which we had this gracious little town smiled on 
us very agreeably. We admired the aspect of 
the episcopal chateau; the extent, the grandeur 
and the luxury of the new stable witnessed the 
owner's wealth; the magnificence of the stair- 
case surprised us ; we passed through the chambers 
and the halls with respect ; but the personality of 
the Cardinal made a strong contrast : he was a 
failing little old man. We watched him dine. 
The view across the garden is superb, and a canal 
three quarters of a league in length, drawn as 
straight as an arrow in the axis of the building, 
gives a high idea of the intelligence and the power 
of the ancient masters. We walked on the edge of 
this and rode through several parts of this domain, 
which is well situated at the extremity of the mag- 
nificent plain of Alsace, at the foot of the Vosges. 
After we had observed with pleasure this ecclesi- 
astical advance-post of a powerful monarchy, and 
strolled at leisure in the surroundings, the next 
day we reached . . . ." 

The failing little old man was Prince Louis 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 263 

Constantin, the third of the Cardinals de Rohan. 
The young student who strolled through the 
galleries of the chateau "with respect/ ' and was 
present at the prelate's dinner, was Goethe. 

After the fire of 1779, Cardinal Louis Edouard 
de Rohan-Guemenee had a new edifice built by 
the architect Salins de Montfort. This exists to- 
day, but how disfigured ! 

The work was not quite finished at the time of 
the Revolution. On June 10, 1790, a band of 
six hundred peasants invaded the gardens of the 
chateau and cut down the ancient trees. Saverne, 
"formerly the den of the Druid Rohan/ 7 fell into 
the power of the Jacobins ; on September 29, 1792, 
they placed an effigy of Louis XVI upon the car- 
dinal's throne, and carried it through all the streets 
of the town, "to the great displeasure of the aris- 
tocrats, who had carefully closed their windows 
and who were doubtless praying fervently for the 
deliverance of the prisoners of the Temple." In 
the evening the town was illuminated, and there 
were dances and feasting (Note 29). 

The Directory of the Department of Bas-Rhin 
saved the Rohan library and sent to Strasburg 
the magnificent volumes, the bindings of which, 
stamped with the arms of the cardinals, bore the 
inscription : Ex bibliotheca Tabernensi. They were 
destroyed in the conflagration of the Strasburg 



264 The Spell of Alsace 

library, lighted August 24, 1870, by German 
bombs. 

During the Consulate the chateau was very 
much dilapidated. The town of Saverne, which 
had acquired it, abandoned it to the Administra- 
tion of the Legion of Honor. This body, instead 
of repairing it, sold the copper, lead, and tiles from 
the roofs. The edifice became a ruin. The town 
again claimed proprietorship, obtained it, and made 
the most urgent repairs. The old palace became 
a market, a mayoralty, a barrack, until the time 
when Prince Louis Napoleon converted it into an 
asylum for widows of high civil and military 
officials who had died in the service of the state. 
The fagades were rebuilt, the apartments re- 
furnished. Since 1870 the palace has again be- 
come a barrack. 

The first time I endeavored to visit the old 
chateau, I was refused admission. Later I was 
more fortunate. I was allowed to visit all the 
floors, and was able to convince myself that there 
did not remain a trace of its former magnificence. 
One can no longer even imagine the arrangement 
of the former rooms ; the whole internal arrange- 
ment has been modified. 

Only the two fagades remain as they were built 
by the architect Salins de Montfort. The fagade 
toward the village has been disfigured by the 



The Chateaux of the Cardinals of Rohan 265 



addition of an immense and disgraceful wing; 
the roof has been raised a story; the palace is 
crowned by an abominable little lantern of colored 
glass. The other elevation, toward the gardens, 
has retained all its majesty, with its immense 
pilasters, which rise from the ground floor to the 
attic, and its grand peristyle, sustained by Co- 
rinthian columns. 

The Rohans thus gave Alsace two superb 
models of French architecture applied to the 
construction of a princely residence. 



XIX 

CHURCHES AND ABBEYS 

THE great abbeys of Alsace were ruined 
by the Thirty Years' War. They had 
begun to rise again when the campaigns 
of Louis XIV against the coalition of Europe 
again upset the province. It was only after the 
Peace of Ryswick that it breathed freely again, and 
the monks and chapters could rebuild their con- 
vents and their churches. Then the monasteries 
which ten centuries previously had Christianized 
and cleared Alsace flourished again : Marmoutier, 
the oldest of all, Murbach, Ebersmunster, Andlau, 
Neuwiller, Altorf, Neubourg, Niederhaslach, and 
many others. 

Some of the monks who inhabited these convents 
in the eighteenth century were indigenous, while 
others were German : but all of them reconstructed 
their churches in the French taste. 

At Neuwiller, they rebuilt the tower ; at Altorf, 
the choir and the transept. The choirs of Nieder- 
haslach, of Neubourg, and of Marmoutier received 
precious wood-carvings. Those of Marmoutier 
and of Neubourg, of which I have spoken else- 

266 



Churches and Abbeys 267 

where, are the most beautiful and the most cele- 
brated. 

Alsace possesses also some complete monuments 
of the religious art of the eighteenth century, 
such as the church of Ebersmunster, the Jesuit 
chapel at Colmar, the church of Guebwiller. 

Of the grand monastery of Ebersmunster there 
remain only a few insignificant buildings. But the 
church still stands with its three towers. The 
exterior is simple and quiet. The interior with its 
vaults covered with frescos and its vast galleries, 
which form a sort of terrace over the low side aisles, 
presents a grand and somewhat theatrical aspect. 
The different parts of the edifice are perfectly 
balanced. The altars harmonize well with the 
architecture. As to the paintings on the ceilings 
of the nave, cupola, and choir, they are a product 
of the rapid and facile art of those nomadic 
decorators who then strolled about Europe, 
painting now a church and again a princely resi- 
dence. One of those who worked at Ebers- 
munster was called Mages, and painted also at 
Stuttgart and Augsburg. Of others we can 
barely decipher the signatures, and that is all we 
know of them. In such edifices it would be 
dangerous to dwell on the details ; but the whole 
interior leaves in the memory a sumptuous and 
brilliant picture. 



268 The Spell of Alsace 

The Jesuits had at Colmar a celebrated estab- 
lishment, which is today the Lyceum. Its chapel 
has been preserved. Because of its free design, 
the grace and suppleness of its harmonious curves, 
the justness of its proportions, the originality 
and fineness of the decoration which outlines its 
arches and enframes its openings, this chapel is 
one of the most delicate and most finished monu- 
ments which the eighteenth century has left us. 
In the nave, on a gravestone, may be read a Latin 
epitaph, thus translated : "I, Jean Jacques Sarger 
of Strasburg, architect of this temple, rest here 
where I have never rested. Lord, who hast given 
me passing repose in my temple, give me eternal 
rest in Thy temple. 1752." Who was this 
Sarger ? In their Memoirs the Jesuit Fathers of the 
college of Colmar related that M. Sarger, architect 
of the town, volunteered to donate the plan and 
direct the work of the church without asking any 
payment. His sole object was to become famous 
and to render service to the Jesuits. Each year, 
nevertheless, they made him a present of a hundred 
livres. They even once gave him a silver-gilt 
porringer of the value of two hundred and thirty 
livres, after which they required of him a discharge 
and a receipt, " a precaution which has been judged 
necessary," adds the author of the Memoirs, 
" against his heirs, having been attacked by the 




INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF GUEBWILLER 



Churches and Abbeys 269 

heirs of less important benefactors." According 
to the same Memoirs Sarger probably died at 
Strasburg. In reality, he died at Colmar, April 
9, 1752. M. Andre Waltz, the learned librarian of 
Colmar, showed me the death certificate, which he 
found among the archives of the town. This is all 
that we know of Sarger. We do not know whether 
he constructed any other monument. It is at 
least interesting to know that this building, 
perhaps the more perfect specimen of eighteenth 
century art in Alsace, is the work of an Alsatian 
architect. 

The church of Guebwiller belongs to a quite 
different style. It was constructed a little later 
by the Prince Abbot of Murbach, Casimir de 
Rathsamhausen. It was never finished and has 
only one tower, which injures the appearance of 
its noble classic fagade. But its colonnade is not 
devoid of elegance. The interior is singularly 
beautiful, with its slender columns, its graceful 
dome, and its decoration which is so perfectly 
harmonious that we perceive in all the details the 
inspiration of the architect himself. We experi- 
ence the impression, so rare in a modern building, 
of feeling that everything here was subordinated 
to the decision of the " Master of the Work." 
At Guebwiller, the plans were at first drawn up by 
a Bipontine constructor named Denque. But he 



270 The Spell of Alsace 

was deprived of the responsibility. The monu- 
ment was taken over and continued by an Aus- 
trian, Gabriel Ignatius Bitter, who directed the 
labors and conceived the idea of the decorations. 
To execute the sculpture he employed a family of 
German artists, domiciled at Guebwiller, the 
Sporrers. The father, Fidel Sporrer, carved the 
complicated, tumultuous and charming group of 
the Assumption which fills the back of the choir ; 
the son Joseph, the two high-reliefs which surround 
the high altar; the daughter Helene, the wood- 
carvings of the choir. It is a fine specimen of 
the Greco-Roman style which was in favor at 
the end of the eighteenth century, but we can dis- 
cover here traces of a Germanism which is more 
accentuated than in other Alsatian edifices. 



XX 

PUBLIC FESTIVALS 

THE chateaux of the Rohans and the 
churches of the abbeys were the models 
which familiarized Alsatian taste with 
the new styles. But if these styles became so 
popular that even today they give their char- 
acteristic aspect to most Alsatian towns, we must 
seek the reason in the great historic events which 
stirred the imagination of Alsace in the eighteenth 
century. 

Louis XV, Marie Leszczinska, and Marie Antoi- 
nette traversed Alsace. The fetes which were 
celebrated as they passed through excited the 
curiosity and the enthusiasm of the multitude. 
The sight of the escorts, the costumes, the toilettes, 
the carriages, all the luxury displayed in connection 
with these great ceremonies, inspired among the 
nobility and the wealthy citizens the desire to im- 
itate these elegant splendors ; and the impression 
of such spectacles was the deeper because, on 
these occasions, Alsace did not assist at these 
magnificent pomps as at a simple amusement; 

271 



272 The Spell of Alsace 

it regarded them with a little pride and a little 
tenderness. 

When King Stanislas and his daughter Marie 
entered Strasburg, July 4, 1725, saluted by salvos 
of artillery and the chiming of bells, escorted by 
the musketeers of Parabere and Pardaillan, when 
they received the homage of the magistrates, 
passed between ranks of soldiers, and listened to 
the compliments of Cardinal de Rohan, surrounded 
by his clergy and all the officers of state, it was 
truly the denouement of a fairy tale. On August 
15, when the royal carriages crossed the city 
through streets hung with garlands, when, to 
the sound of the drums, timbals and trumpets of 
the bodyguard, dressed in silver brocade trimmed 
with silver lace and sown with roses and artificial 
flowers, Marie Leszczinska entered the cathedral 
of Strasburg to become the wife of the King of 
France, the people of Alsace who crowded into the 
squares contemplated with joyous emotion this 
extraordinary scene, as if they had themselves 
given this Queen to their King. For every person 
in this crowd knew the sorrowful story of the Polish 
exiles, their cramped and silent life in the little 
house at Wissembourg where they existed on the 
alms of France, their hopes, their fears, their 
anxieties, the good-fellowship of Stanislas, a 
great dreamer and a great pipe-smoker, the sweet 



Public Festivals 273 

and compassionate disposition of Marie, the 
nobly concealed distress of the unfortunate family. 
And this strange adventure, which at Paris excited 
the raillery of libelers, moved and enchanted 
Alsace. 

Nineteen years later France celebrated the con- 
valescence of Louis XV. Everywhere, in all the 
towns, in all the villages, the population delivered 
itself to great rejoicings. When the King, after 
leaving Metz and passing through Luneville, 
turned toward Alsace, whence he was going to the 
siege of Fribourg, the people of Strasburg showed 
the most touching lightheartedness. They re- 
membered the fetes by which, nineteen years 
previously, Strasburg had welcomed the exile of 
Wissembourg, who had become Queen of France. 
And what perhaps redoubled the enthusiasm of 
the crowd, was the widely spread news of the 
reconciliation of the King and Queen. The 
public was still ignorant of the revenge which 
Richelieu and Madame de Chateauroux had 
already taken. 

The rejoicings lasted five days. They were 
reproduced in a series of charming engravings by 
the Alsatian artist Weis. Thanks to these en- 
gravings, so lively and spirited, we can take part 
in the transports of the crowd, the illuminations 
and the fireworks, the parades of the guilds and 



274 The Spell of Alsace 

the sports of the population, and as the chateau 
where the King was staying was the center of the 
rejoicings, we are shown all the aspects of the 
edifice. 

These fine compositions are accompanied by a 
story of the fetes, which Weis framed in deliciously 
fanciful designs, in a style quite like that of the 
ornaments which decorate the halls of the chateau 
of the^Rohans. The text of this story is written 
in a pure, spirituelle and ceremonious language. 
The architecture of Robert de Cotte, the sculpture 
of Le Lorrain, the engravings of Weis, the prose 
of the nameless narrator, all breathe the same 
nobility, the same elegance, and the same spirit. 

The news of the convalescence of the King had 
already brought mirth to the people. Amidst the 
roar of artillery and musketry, a Te Deum was 
sung in the cathedral. Bread and meat were dis- 
tributed to the crowd. The fountains ran wine. 
The Cardinal gave a festival in his chateau whose 
" brilliance and sumptuousness corresponded to 
the magnificence of the place and the dignity of 
the master." 

There was a supper at the house of the Inten- 
dant, and a display of fireworks before the house 
of the royal Pretor. ... On October 5 the King 
himself reached Strasburg. 

The whole population of the city put on military 



Public Festivals 275 

costumes to form an escort for the sovereign. The 
young men of the town enrolled themselves in a 
company dressed as Swiss, "in a uniform of blue 
camlet, decorated on every seam with red and 
white silk ribbons, with the strawberry, the hal- 
berd, the plumed hat and all the rest of the Swiss 
costume/' and another company of hussars, 
"dressed in scarlet, with buttons and trimmings of 
silver." The elite of the burghers were divided 
into four squadrons of cavalry and three battalions 
of infantry. (I have abridged the long and minute 
description of the costumes ; but I note in passing 
that this fashion of "playing soldier" is signifi- 
cant and reveals to us the military temperament 
of Alsace.) "Each corps of infantry and cavalry 
had a flag and a white standard sown on one side 
with golden fleur-de-lis and having embroidered 
on the other a representation of the Virgin, which 
is the ancient standard of the town of Strasburg, 
the which city marched at the head of the free 
cities of the Empire, at the solemn entries which 
the Emperors made into Rome in olden times. . . . 
A horse-drummer, with his kettledrums adorned 
with flounces of crimson damask embroidered in 
gold with the arms of the city, and heralds dressed 
in scarlet laced with gold, preceded the cavalry. 
Each battalion of infantry had at its head four 
hautboys and as many hunting horns, which for 



276 The Spell of Alsace 

the three battalions made twenty-four musicians, 
of whom sixteen wore blue coats and the other 
eight scarlet, all adorned with gold braid. " 

The Pretor, at the head of the troops of citizens, 
awaited the King outside of the gate of Saverne. 
He presented to Louis XV three keys of silver- 
gilt, and paid him a compliment. At the edge of 
the suburb rose an arch of triumph, laden with 
allegories, emblems, devices, and magnificent 
Latin inscriptions. Beyond this had been built 
an equestrian statue of Louis XV, pyramids 
bearing coats of arms and a globe wreathed with 
laurel. The King marched toward the cathedral 
through streets strewn with sand and spread with 
flowers, between houses decorated with tapestry. 
Then appeared " eight young shepherds and eight 
shepherdesses, chosen from the most beautiful 
and well built youth of Strasburg. They were 
dressed in blue suits, ornamented with garlands 
of flowers and pink ribbons, their curled hair flying 
free, and their crooks painted and gilded. . . . 
The shepherdesses carried little baskets, very prop- 
erly filled with all kinds of flowers, and presented 
to the King their innocent homage under the sym- 
bol of these flowers, which they offered him and 
which they strewed before his feet/' 

A little farther on were " twenty-four maidens 
of fifteen to twenty, from the most distinguished 



Public Festivals 277 

families among the burghers, dressed in superb 
materials, according to the different German styles 
of Strasburg, their locks braided and hanging over 
their shoulders ; their attire was rendered more 
charming by their grace and inborn beauty. They 
expressed in the same manner their devotion and 
the joy of the people. ... A like number of 
chosen persons of the same sex, dressed in the 
French mode, acquitted themselves of the same 
duties a hundred paces farther on." The picture 
is charming, and we cannot help remarking the 
adroit and politic liberality which had dictated 
the choice of the episodes of the reception. 

The King prayed at the cathedral, and then 
entered the episcopal palace. I cannot quote here 
the whole story of the fetes and rejoicings, the 
merry town, the amusements of the people, the 
illumination of the cathedral, lighted with firepots 
11 which seemed to have turned into crystal this 
marvelous bit of architecture." I content myself 
with a few lines drawn from the astonishing de- 
scription of the fireworks on the 111. 

After all the allegorical figures arranged on the 
banks and on the water had been lighted by sheaves 
of fire, Neptune suddenly appeared armed with his 
trident, in a car drawn by two sea horses. "The 
barbs of the trident, the points of the crown, as 
well as the eyes, ears, and nostrils of the horses 



278 The Spell of Alsace 

spouted a thousand different fires. The car, 
whose wheels formed revolving suns, advanced 
to the middle of the basin and stopped under the 
King's windows. A few moments later the whole 
machine exploded with a terrific detonation, 
filling the air with such a prodigious quantity of 
rockets, serpents, and other fireworks, that the 
spectators were for some time divided between 
fear and admiration. These fireworks, which 
lasted about three quarters of an hour, were set 
off with surprising promptness to the sound of 
kettledrums, trumpets, and all sorts of musical 
instruments, placed at the extremities of the 
basin on two painted music stands, formed like 
ships, illuminated, covered with streamers and 
garlands, with the arms of France above." 

The splendor of the fetes given on the occasion 
of the marriage of Marie Antoinette is well 
known. Strasburg received with transports of 
joy this German princess who came to be united 
with the Dauphin of France. On one of the islands 
in the Rhine had been erected a pretty one-story 
pavilion, with an Italian terrace, where Marie 
Antoinette was to meet Count de Noailles, the 
King's ambassador. This pavilion was composed 
of five rooms; the Austrian antechamber, the 
Austrian salon, in the center the " salon of de- 
livery," then the French salon and the French 




PORTRAIT OF GOETHE 



Public Festivals 279 

antechamber. The Dauphiness entered the Aus- 
trian apartment ; she there took off all her clothes 
down to her stockings, and was dressed in the 
new clothes sent by the King of France. Then, 
after stopping in the delivery chamber, and passing 
through the French apartment, she entered 
Strasburg in the midst of acclamations, speeches, 
dances and illuminations. 

Goethe described these festivities, at which he 
was present. He has related how, in the pavilion 
on the Rhine island, he saw certain tapestries 
from Raphael's cartoons, and thus learned "to 
know the beautiful and the perfect. " But other 
tapestries placed in the central salon of this same 
pavilion filled him with indignation. They por- 
trayed the story of Jason and Medea. Goethe 
thought it was very bad taste to place under the 
eyes of Marie Antoinette the picture of the most 
horrible marriage that was ever celebrated. "It 
is," he cried, "as if they had sent to the frontier, 
to greet this beautiful and lively princess, the 
most frightful phantom!" His comrades feared 
a scandal, and had to drag him from the pavilion. 
"After which," adds Goethe, "they assured me 
that nobody was going to look for a meaning in 
the pictures; that as for themselves they would 
never have dreamed of it, and that the whole 
population of Strasburg and its surroundings, no 



280 The Spell of Alsace 

matter what its affluence, nor even the Queen 
herself and her court, would have such visions." 
Without criticising Goethe, his comrades were 
right : the subject of the tapestry is of less im- 
portance than the beauty of its coloring. It is 
also well to note that Truth and Poetry, from which 
these lines were taken, was not written until 1810. 
Remembrance of the Revolutionary tragedy 
perhaps then induced Goethe to exaggerate his 
indignation and his presentiment of 1770. 




PORTRAIT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE 



XXI 

THE CITIES OF ALSACE 

INITIATE in French art, Alsace rebuilt its 
cities during the eighteenth century in the 
French taste. New hotels and mansions 
decorated the old streets with their elegant fagades. 
(Sometimes from economy, or perhaps as a pious 
concession to old customs, the arrangement of 
the old houses was retained behind the modern 
fagade, and from this resulted a strange discord- 
ance between the outside appearance and that of 
the interior.) 

We are generally ignorant of the names of the 
authors of these charming constructions. Parisian 
architects crossed Alsace on their way to Ger- 
many, where every petty princelet desired to 
possess his own Versailles. In passing through 
they furnished plans either to the cities or to 
private individuals, leaving the task of carrying 
out their designs to Alsatian contractors, such as 
Massol, who superintended the works of the 
chateau of Strasburg and of the sacristy of the 
cathedral. Others set up in business at Strasburg, 

281 



282 The Spell of Alsace 

like that Chevalier d'Isnard who is responsible 
for several beautiful houses in the style of Louis 
XVI. There were also architects of Alsatian 
origin. I have already cited the name of Sarger 
who built the Jesuit chapel at Colmar. The two 
handsomest houses of the Grande Place of Hague- 
nau, the Landweg house and that of the civil 
hospital, were constructed by Georges Barth, 
deputy registrar of the town. The building of the 
former Sovereign Council of Alsace at Colmar is 
the work of an engineer named Chassin. But how 
many graceful structures have remained anony- 
mous at Wissembourg, at Haguenau, at Mulhouse, 
at Strasburg ! At that time the architect was the 
most modest of artists. 

At Strasburg, especially, was developed the 
luxury of building. Of 3,600 houses, 1,520 were 
rebuilt or transformed. Every great abbey of 
Alsace desired to own a hotel in the capital of the 
province; such were the Hotels of Neuwiller, 
of Ettenheimmunster, of Andlau, of Marmoutier 
(recently restored in a discreet and intelligent 
manner). Each German prince desired to have 
his house at Strasburg; such are the admirable 
Hotel de Hanau, which serves today as the 
mayoralty, the Hotel des Deux-Ponts, the Hotel 
de Saxe. Finally private owners erected in all 
parts of the city those pretty homes which are 



The Cities of Alsace 283 

the charm of the streets of Strasburg. Even 
today, in spite of the transformation of certain 
quarters, in spite of the absurd and the colossal 
buildings which have been erected in the neighbor- 
hood of houses of the eighteenth century, this 
fine architecture is the chief factor of the sober 
beauty of Strasburg, and I must admit that I was 
stupefied when I read in Taine's Carnets de Voyage 
this sally regarding Strasburg: " Somewhat dull: 
a complete lack of elegance ; it is a city of people 
who have no need of fineness and luxury." 

In 1764, a complete transformation of the city 
was debated. The royal pretor Gayot begged the 
Due de Choiseul to send him an architect capable 
of modernizing the plan and the aspect of Stras- 
burg. Such vast enterprises were then pleasing 
to royal intendants. Gayot — Goethe, not with- 
out reason, made fun of his great projects — de- 
sired to eliminate the narrow and tortuous streets 
of the old city, and construct a new checkerboard 
town. The Duke sent him Blondel, who was a 
sworn enemy of the curved lines and picturesque 
architecture which had been the fashion for fifty 
years and who wished to restore art to antique 
simplicity. He dreamed only of demolishing and 
straightening. Fortunately the acquisition of 
the properties offered difficulty. The conservative 
and practical minds of the Alsatians rebelled 



284 The Spell of Alsace 

against this sudden and costly derangement. 
BlondePs plan was not executed. The Aubette 
and three scattered houses are all that remain 
today of Gayot's grand projects. 

In these notes I have spoken especially of archi- 
tecture. To complete the picture I would like to 
show how the French style of the eighteenth cen- 
tury was applied to Alsatian porcelain, in which the 
Hannongs joined the most simple, the most natural 
and the least conventional decoration to the most 
contorted forms of outline; to the decoration of 
stuffs which, during the second half of the cen- 
tury, founded the glory and wealth of Mulhouse ; 
to the ironwork which ornamented the balconies, 
the windows, and the imposts with light grilles 
which are miracles of taste and grace ; to the wood- 
carving which produced so many charming works : 
the choir of Marmoutier, the choir of Saint Peter 
the Less (miserably painted), the sacristy of the 
cathedral of Strasburg, but whose masterpiece 
is perhaps the reception hall of the Chapter of 
Noble Ladies of Massevaux, transported today 
to the historical museum of Mulhouse. I would 
like also to show how these styles were applied 
to the furniture and household utensils, penetrat- 
ing even into the country districts, where they 
modified the peasants' houses. I would like, 



The Cities of Alsace 285 

finally, to enumerate the excellent portrait painters 
and the remarkable engravers born in the eigh- 
teenth century on Alsatian soil. . . . 

But as I must confine myself to the monuments 
I have mentioned, I may be asked if there was not 
in the Alsatian taste of the eighteenth century 
some characteristic originality. Let us try to 
define the Alsatian touch. 

In the first place, Alsace is a country of very 
ancient civilization. Its taste was refined long 
ago ; its artistic culture does not date from yester- 
day. It was the great route from Italy to 
Flanders. As early as the period of the Renais- 
sance it was able with singular delicacy to har- 
monize lessons which came to it from the north 
with those which it received from the south. Its 
genius was a compound of experience, good sense, 
and moderation. The style of Louis XV might 
lead to grotesque extravagance : the Baroque 
style of the German churches and palaces fully 
proves it. The style of Louis XVI might de- 
generate into a gloomy coldness. Alsace knew 
how to avoid the two dangers. 

It did not plunge headforemost into new 
fashions. It followed them with prudence. In 
the early years of the eighteenth century, the 
style erroneously called Louis XV appeared at 
Versailles and at Paris : the carvings of the choir 



286 The Spell of Alsace 

of Notre Dame which, with their volutes, their 
shells, and their flowery branches, are perfect, if 
early, examples of the new decoration, were exe- 
cuted from 1669 to 1714. Nothing similar is 
found in Alsace before 1725. The civil hospital 
of Strasburg was built between 1718 and 1724 
by Mollinger, an Alsatian architect; it is pure 
architecture of the seventeenth century. Later, 
when Parisian artists were already reacting against 
the abuse of curved lines in construction, deco- 
ration, and furniture, when the discovery of 
Herculaneum and Pompeii, the travels of Caylus, 
and the influence of Winckelmann were bringing 
them back to the simplicity of antique forms, 
Alsace still held to the old styles. It was com- 
mencing to adopt the style of Louis XVI when the 
Revolution broke out. We can make similar 
statements of other French provinces. But no- 
where is this retardation as pronounced as in Alsace. 
Alsace, besides, never confined itself to a slavish 
imitation of French models. Even in the Middle 
Ages it had manifested its artistic originality. 
When the Gothic style crossed the Vosges from 
France, when it created the cathedral of Strasburg, 
Saint Thiebaut at Thann, Saint Peter and Saint 
Paul at Wissembourg, Saint George at Schlestadt, 
the Alsatian Gothic was different from the Gothic 
of the Rhine provinces and the Gothic of the 



The Cities of Alsace 287 

Isle of France. And these differences, which are 
many times repeated, would be worth special 
study. At Colmar, at Riquewihr, at Ensisheim, 
the exquisite buildings of the Alsatian Renaissance 
present in their externals and their ornamentation 
a character of restraint and sobriety which forbids 
us to confuse them with the purely Germanic 
constructions put up at the same period in south 
Germany. In the eighteenth century Alsace 
still put its imprint upon the styles which it 
imported. 

In the first place it imposed its materials upon 
the architect. Until then the sandstone of the 
Vosges had been used only to build churches or 
fortresses. From the beginning of the eighteenth 
century the mansions and chateaux were con- 
structed of this magnificent stone whose pink tones 
contrast with so much vigor with the blue of the 
sky and the verdure of the landscapes ; this gives 
Alsatian architecture its color and accent. 

Then the forms of the antique art of Alsace 
suggest to foreign builders picturesque details of 
which they would never have dreamed of their 
own accord. We noticed on the side wall of the 
chateau of Strasburg unexpected corbeling, a 
reminiscence of those charming oriels projected 
from the fagades of the Renaissance houses 
(Note 30). 



288 The Spell of Alsace 

In addition, the very spirit of the people inspired 
the artists. For Alsace there was a little too much 
solemnity in an art which, even in its most delicate 
caprices, always seemed to recall that it was born in 
Versailles. In walking through Wissembourg, 
where whole streets were rebuilt in the eighteenth 
century, we are struck by the softness of the little 
fagades, by the familiar, almost popular, accent 
of the sculptures, and we admire the good fellow- 
ship with which these burghers, devoid of ostenta- 
tion, managed to accommodate the fancies of 
fashion to the adornment of their good city. 

Finally, — this is its eminent virtue, — Alsace 
respects its past and loves its traditions. It can 
therefore adopt a new art without ceasing to be 
faithful to the old art. In the eighteenth century 
it gave a rare example of taste and wisdom. It 
tolerated everything ; it did not destroy the monu- 
ments which had been left it by the Middle 
Ages or the Renaissance and which had been 
spared throughout the fury of the Thirty Years' 
War. 

During this period, in France and especially at 
Paris, every new masterpiece cost the life of an 
old masterpiece. The builders dealt only with 
secondhand materials. This was the time when 
they a degothicised " the old churches. Alsace 
never approved of such vandalism. 



The Cities of Alsace 289 

They are restoring the Romanesque church of 
Andlau; but they take care not to change its 
original external appearance. They rebuilt the 
choir of the church of Marmoutier, but with pointed 
arches; and, though this Gothic was not admi- 
rable, the intention was doubtless pious. Toward 
the end of the eighteenth century there were 
discussions about modernizing the cathedral of 
Strasburg; in 1682 the architect Heckeler de- 
stroyed the rood loft, and in 1685 he erected in the 
midst of the choir a high altar of Baroque style 
under an enormous baldachin sustained by four 
groups of columns and surmounted by the royal 
crown among garlands and unrestful statues ; in 
1761 Massol destroyed this altar, when he con- 
structed a new choir of wood and plaster. But 
these various works made the Strasburgers in- 
dignant, and the chapter always opposed them 
with all its might. In 1772 the mean booths which 
surrounded the cathedral were removed ; but a 
master-mason, Jean Georges Goetz, constructed 
eighteen new ones on a uniform plan, with Gothic 
vaulting ; and also, faithful to the traditions of the 
image-makers of the Middle Ages, executed the 
amusing gargoyles which may still be seen near 
the clock doorway, in which he caricatured the 
bewigged heads of some of the burghers of Stras- 
burg, his contemporaries. 



290 The Spell of Alsace 

This is what I call the Alsatian touch. 

The art of the eighteenth century in Alsace is 
indeed French art, but received with prudence, 
treated with moderation, and reconciled with the 
respect due to the past. 

This conquest of Alsatian taste was the first 
chapter in the history of the attachment of the 
province to France. The Revolution and the 
Empire completed the work commenced under 
the ancien regime by the Rohans, the abbeys, and 
the French artists. The Revolution satisfied the 
liberal instincts of the people, more free than any 
other in Europe from monarchical sentiment, as 
the Germans today perceive and complain. The 
German Empire offered the Alsatians the oppor- 
tunity of putting at the service of their country 
those military virtues of which, in 1874, Bismarck 
boasted in a famous speech to the Reichstag : 
" Alsace furnished to the French for their wars — 
and this is a testimonial of honor — the best 
soldiers, and especially the best non-commis- 
sioned officers. ..." And Bismarck said noth- 
ing of the great generals, such as Kleber, Rapp, 
Lefevre. 

Thus, first art, then liberty, and finally war 
fused the destinies of Alsace with those of France. 
The accord was sealed thrice. Since 1871 every- 
thing which was within the power of men to anni- 



The Cities of Alsace 291 



hilate has been broken. But the first witnesses 
of the ancient compact, the monuments of the 
eighteenth century, still exist. Hence they merit 
a little more than our admiration. 



XXII 
UNCHANGING ALSACE 

IN telling of my rambles through Alsace and 
of its history, my first object has been to 
inspire in some of my readers the desire to 
know a province which offers such admirable 
monuments and such pathetic memories. But I 
have tried also to show by some examples how, 
from the Treaty of Ryswick to that of Frankfort, 
Alsace had little by little fused with the French 
fatherland, how the art and taste of our eighteenth 
century had stamped with their imprint its monu- 
ments, its dwellings, and its manners, how the 
Revolution had satisfied its old democratic in- 
stincts, how the wars of the Empire had given 
opportunities for its military tastes. I have 
particularly insisted upon the first of the three 
influences which have had their effect upon Alsace : 
it was, until now, that which has been least studied 
by the historians, and remains, if not the most 
important, at least that which is most openly 
revealed to the casual eye. Finally, the observa- 
tions which I have made and the information 

292 



Unchanging Alsace 293 

which I have collected in my travels have allowed 
me to perceive the bond which nothing has broken, 
which nothing will break, and by which the Alsace 
of today is joined to its past. I would like to 
complete these notes by summarizing the events 
which have happened in these latter years and 
which justify what I wrote seven years ago, 
after my first journey in Alsace: "The hearts 
have not changed." 

If a new constitution were given to Alsace- 
Lorraine tomorrow, it would modify neither the 
sentiment nor the attitude of the Alsatians. They 
claim an autonomy which Germany believes it 
cannot allow them without endangering its own 
safety. Bismarck considered Alsace as a glacis 
which the Germans must be able to defend before 
the French can attack the Rhine. Even in 
absolute peace military territories are subject to 
special regulations. The unfortunate Alsatians 
know only too well what heavy servitude weighs 
upon their province, because of the "exigencies of 
national defence." They are not deceived by the 
promises lavished upon them. Under a new 
government they would continue to suffer from 
the fluctuations of the double policy which governs 
their affairs, and would know alternately the 
rigor of the Empire and the favors of the Emperor. 



294 The Spell of Alsace 

Alsace is the plaything of a game played 
between Prussia, or rather the House of Hohen- 
zollern, and the Federal States. Reichsland, 
that is, imperial territory, it is administered by 
and for the Empire. But for a long time the 
King of Prussia seems to have wished that this 
rich and magnificent province should be ome an 
appanage of his family. This is the secret of the 
treatment, sometimes severe, sometimes more 
liberal, which is applied to Alsace. The province 
is pitilessly sacrificed whenever its interests con- 
flict with those of one of the states of the Empire : 
it is always injured in the laying of taxes; the 
Germans have refused to build for it a canal 
parallel to the Rhine; its interests are sacrificed 
to those of the Grand Duchy of Baden in the 
project which will soon be realized of construct- 
ing barrages to utilize the water power of the 
Rhine. . . . 

Quite different are the personal politics of Wil- 
helm II. Doubtless in the case of an important 
matter concerning the German states, such as the 
creation of a canal parallel to the Rhine, or in- 
volving German chauvinism, such as the teaching 
of French, the Emperor refrains from interfering. 
Nevertheless, on many occasions he has tried to 
make the Alsatians understand that they have no 
better friend than the King of Prussia : when the 




HOHKOENIGSBOURG 

(Restored) 



Unchanging Alsace 295 

town of Schlestadt gave him Hohkoenigsbourg, 
he promptly canceled the regulation establishing 
the dictatorship, and the imperial decree was 
signed at Hohkoenigsbourg ; he favors the Cath- 
olics by giving some privilege to a bishop or a 
monastery; he flatters Alsatian democracy 
by making advances to the " civil element" 
of the population; he orders that the souvenirs 
and the traditions of the people should be re- 
spected, and, against the advice of his officials, 
allows the Gallic cock to flap his wings on the 
summit of the Wissembourg monument. In 
short, he desires to make himself popular, so that 
some day public sentiment may approve of his 
ambitions. The Alsatians profit by this without 
illusion as to the true reason for these slight advan- 
tages, and, among themselves, they laugh at the 
man who tries to cajole them. Do they not know 
that their destiny will always be settled at Berlin 
and that they will never be consulted? Without 
earing to know under what form independence 
will be refused them, they continue the work 
which in their eyes is more important than all 
else : the defence of their nationality. For this 
they count only on their hereditary virtues of 
energy and tenacity. 

All the barriers which were erected between 
them and the Germans forty years ago still stand. 



£96 The Spell of Alsace 

What I wrote in 1903 is true in 1910. The few 
renegades who were willing to become imperial 
officials are still in office. Germany has paid them 
well, but their number has not increased. The 
annexed and the immigrants form two societies 
which live in contact, with no other relations 
that those of necessary business. The men meet 
each other, speak to each other, but do not receive 
each other at home. The women neither receive, 
nor speak to, nor see each other. The children 
play with each other at school, but take sides when 
they enter the university, and the Alsatian students 
form associations which no German is allowed to 
join. There are mixed marriages among the lower 
classes, but very few in the middle classes, and 
almost all those who take part in such marriages 
are sent to Coventry. 

The bourgeoisie which from the Revolution 
until 1870 was responsible for the growth and 
wealth of Alsace, that rich and intelligent class 
which included the Protestant theologians of the 
university of Strasburg, the jurists of the court of 
Colmar, and the manufacturers of Mulhouse, 
were decimated, almost annihilated, by the 
emigration which followed annexation. "When 
the cession to Germany was an accomplished 
fact, the exodus toward France commenced . .. . 
instinctively, for nothing else could be done. 



Unchanging Alsace 297 

What the emigration has cost us in population 
must be figured in hundreds of thousands, — in 
money, in millions, — in capacity and intelligence, 
it escapes all calculation, all estimation, and is 
irreparable. Even today, after thirty-eight years, 
this drain is not completely finished and con- 
tinues to impoverish us." Thus expresses him- 
self M. Fritz Kiener, fellow and professor of the 
university of Strasburg, in a masterly study of 
the Alsatian bourgeoisie which he published last 
year. But, if we can believe M. Kiener, and no 
one is better able to inform us, this bourgeoisie is 
beginning to recover. This is how he justifies 
this optimism: "From Wissembourg to Bisch- 
willer, " he says, "the movement is hardly per- 
ceptible ; in this section the bourgeoisie is still too 
exhausted by the loss of all the blood which it 
has given France. At Strasburg it is a little more 
noticeable, for this city receives accessions from 
all the towns, large and small. . . . The prognos- 
tication becomes more favorable when we 
consider Upper Alsace. There the factories 
have retained the industrial families on which 
rest the hope of our country. Mulhouse, unfor- 
tunately, has no more children; it has given 
its sons to France, and it very often gives its 
daughters to Swiss immigrants. We see with 
sadness the extinction of the old Mulhousian 



298 The Spell of Alsace 

1 f abricantocracy ' and its replacement by foreigners 
who remain foreigners . . . (Note 31). The part 
which Mulhouse must play in our national life 
would be very much compromised if the factories, 
through becoming the property of stock companies, 
no longer offered to capable and ambitious 
engineers the opportunity to obtain managing 
positions. It is the Alsatians who profit by this 
movement. These successful manufacturers of 
the present day, who have risen from the midst 
of the hard-working Alsatian middle class, already 
try to reach the height of the great traditions of 
Mulhouse, and this fact throws a brilliant light on 
our future. " (Note 32.) M. Kiener thus does not 
judge impossible the uplifting of the Alsatian 
bourgeoisie, provided that it retains "its class 
pride" and that it remains faithful to "the French 
culture carefully preserved in our land by family 
tradition and also instinctively considered as the 
distinctive culture of the bourgeois class." Thus 
are we shown the formulas on which young Alsace 
has founded its nationalism. Now, for the last 
ten years, not only in the bourgeoisie but also in 
the middle classes, these maxims have sunk so 
deeply into all minds that today we cannot con- 
sider chimerical the hopes of M. Kiener. 

They were at first proposed by a group of young 
men, all of whom were born after 1870 and all of 



Unchanging Alsace 299 

whom have remained faithful to the land of their 
birth. As they adapted themselves strictly to 
the necessities of Alsatian life (Note 33), they 
have been successful. Exact and fortunate words 
were found to clear their consciences, to define 
and delimit confused dislikes and sympathies. In 
this way class lines were redrawn and party divi- 
sions were attenuated, or at least each of these 
parties has clearly discovered the platform upon 
which all Alsatians can unite. A few young 
priests, thirsty for notoriety, and some intransi- 
geant clerical partisans continue to exploit the 
anti-religious policy of the French government. 
But the great trouble into which the spectacle of 
the activities of Combes had thrown Catholic 
consciences is appeased. 

The nationalist idea gave a new accent to the 
deliberations and the speeches of the delegation 
from Alsace-Lorraine, and inspired Wetterle, 
Langel, Preiss, Pfleger, Blumenthal, to bold and 
decided words. . . . These manifestations were 
apparently useless, for the delegation has only a 
shadow of power; but they resounded through- 
out Alsace and gave the Alsatians courage to 
speak more freely, to act more boldly, and to 
insist upon the right of being themselves. 

To the heroic protestation of the twenty years 
following the war had succeeded a dull and hesi- 



300 The Spell of Alsace 

tating opposition without a guiding idea. And 
then the annexed people took the offensive. 

At first there were skirmishes. Although the 
dictatorship was abolished in fact in 1902, the 
officials were not always resigned to the abandon- 
ment of the former practices : whenever one of 
them exceeded his rights, there were now protests 
to recall him to respect for the law. In their 
meetings the young men used expressions which 
the police generally pretended not to hear, but 
which came to the ears of the Pangermanists. 
To the affronts which they lavished on the Alsa- 
tians, the Alsatians replied by cruel mockeries. 
Then a brilliant artist, Hansi of Colmar, drew those 
Vogesenbilder whose success was enormous in 
Alsace and elsewhere, biting caricatures in which 
he ridiculed the German tourists and their bottle- 
green traveling clothes. It was he also who 
expressed the quiet raillery of his countrymen 
on the day when the Emperor came to dedicate 
the bric-a-brac of the Hohkoenigsbourg amid un- 
timely showers. At the same time, in order to 
better affirm their right of remembrance, the 
Alsatians multiplied opportunities for celebrating 
the glories of their French past and for recalling 
the sadness of the defeat which had delivered them 
to Germany. This was the meaning of the monu- 
ment which they erected last year to the memory of 



Unchanging Alsace 301 

the French soldiers who died on the battle field 
of Wissembourg. The speeches made on the 
day of its dedication can leave no doubt on 
this point. 

"The history of a people/' said Abbe" Wetter 16, 
over the tomb of General Abel Douay, "is com- 
posed of the living memory of all its glories. Our 
province, which was so often the scene of heroic 
struggles, has an unusually troubled history. Un- 
der all dominations, it has known how to remain 
itself, it has given itself only to those who made 
an effort to be worthy of its esteem and its 
affection. It preciously guards the memory of 
benefits received, and will never permit to be torn, 
effaced, or altered one of the pages on which are 
inscribed the glorious facts of its past. 

"So, without giving to this homage a character 
which might wound or offend anybody, it wishes 
today to honor its dead, and renders to them the 
tribute of its admiration and its gratitude. 

"This is the right and the honor of Alsace!" 

Do we not hear in this speech an echo of the 
discourse which Edouard Teutsch, deputy from 
Saverne, made thirty-seven years ago from the 
tribune of the Reichstag: "Two centuries of life 
and thought in common create between the 
members of a single family a sacred bond which 



302 The Spell of Alsace 

no argument, and still less violence, could de- 
stroy !" 

To tell the truth, neither the raillery of the 
bourgeoisie, nor the satire of the caricaturists, 
nor the piety of the Alsatians in regard to their 
ancient fatherland, has had much effect on the 
masters of Alsace. Whether they were thick- 
skinned, or whether German pride forbade them 
to show their displeasure, they paid no attention 
to these pin-pricks. On the other hand, they were 
themselves too much imbued with military spirit 
to disapprove of the homage rendered to soldiers 
who had fallen on the field of battle. But within 
the last two years the question of " double culture" 
has suddenly become restricted and narrowed 
to become a question of the French language. 
The Germans showed themselves intractable on 
this new ground, and their adversaries then 
entered upon a struggle which shows no sign of 
ending. 

I will merely recall the first episode of this. 
In 1908, on a motion of M. Kubler, the delegation 
of Alsace-Lorraine almost unanimously demanded 
that French should be taught in all the primary 
schools of Alsace. Soon afterward the interdiction 
of a representation of Les Plaideurs at Strasburg 
aroused public opinion and clearly showed the ill- 
will of the government. In March, 1909, the 



Unchanging Alsace 303 

delegation questioned the president of the ministry 
as to the action which the government intended 
to take on Kubler's motion. M. Zorn von Bulach 
replied in the most evasive manner. A new 
motion was proposed by M. Back to the effect 
that French should at least be taught in the 
localities where the municipal councils should 
decide it was useful. The delegation returned to 
the question in May, and the government opposed 
it with new excuses : it was impossible to authorize 
the teaching of French in the primary schools; 
the government, however, would go on record as 
favorable to private instruction in this language 
outside of the schools. . . . But meantime, 
there was an outburst of polemics. A professor 
of the university of Strasburg and two officials 
of the department of education published a 
manifesto entitled Gegen die Verwelschung 
(Against the Partisans of the French Language). 
M. Gneisse, director of the Lyceum of Colmar, 
wrote for the Strasburger Post indignant articles 
against the motions of the delegation. The 
caricaturist Hansi published in the Journal de 
Colmar, edited by the Abbe Wetterle, a caricature 
which M. Gneisse decided to recognize as himself. 
M. Gneisse prosecuted Hansi, who was fined 500 
marks : then he prosecuted M. Wetterle", who 
was sentenced to two months' imprisonment. 



304 The Spell of Alsace 

And the battle continued among the journals 
and among the public, the more bitterly because 
in this affair it was not a question for the Germans 
merely of pursuing their enterprise of Germani- 
zation, and for the Alsatians of defending their 
nationality. To the aid of the officials hastened 
all the philologists of Germany, jealous for the 
predominance of Germanic idioms, while the 
Alsatians, who are practical business men, made it 
evident how profitable it was to them to know 
both languages. 

If we wish to know the reasons on account of 
which, after forty years of German domination, 
Alsace persists in demanding that they should 
return its privilege of using French, we would do 
well to read the admirable plea in favor of French 
recently published by M. Eccard, a Strasburg 
lawyer. 

Until the Revolution — to summarize M. Ec- 
card's argument — the French language had 
penetrated only the upper strata of society, but, 
in the nineteenth century, after Napoleon had re- 
organized education in the secondary schools and 
universities, it commenced to make progress 
among the middle classes. Toward 1840, and 
especially after the Revolution of 1848, every 
Alsatian with the least intellectual culture usually 
employed French in his conversation and his 



Unchanging Alsace 305 

correspondence. The progress was even so sur- 
prising that in certain circles there was a fear 
lest all knowledge of the German language 
should be lost, a very legitimate movement which 
corresponds to the present " mo vement in f avor of 
French." Until 1830 the common people were 
ignorant of French; but, under Louis Philippe, 
normal schools for teachers were instituted and 
both languages were taught in the primary 
schools, so that in 1870 the number of peasants, 
laborers, and artisans who spoke French and were 
proud of it was very considerable. 

To this policy of France, so prudent and so 
respectful toward the national traditions, let us 
contrast the brutal manner in which Germany has 
acted since the annexation. Every effort was 
made to extirpate French, and " everybody who 
is not blinded by political passions unites in 
deploring this system, unworthy of a civilized and 
cultured nation like Germany." The French 
language was forbidden in the popular schools, 
and reduced to the necessary minimum in normal 
schools for teachers. It was allowed a small 
place in the secondary schools, but there it was 
taught by unsatisfactory teachers, and like a 
dead language, for four hours a week in the lower 
classes, and only two hours in the upper classes. 
A pupil who has studied French only in school is 



806 The Spell of Alsace 

unable to speak it, and he is completely ignorant 
of the spirit of the language. 

The systematic persecution of French has not 
changed the habits of the upper bourgeoisie; 
but in the country, and among the working classes, 
the population no longer knows French (Note 34) . 
The shopkeepers and the artisans, especially in the 
Haut-Rhin, endeavor to preserve and even to in- 
crease their knowledge. The territory which 
French seems to have lost has, however, not been 
gained by High German. This retreat has prof- 
ited only the patois. Now, the mentality of a 
people is not elevated by the general usage of a 
popular language. The Alsatian patois cannot be 
an element of high culture. It was French which 
was the educator of Alsatian thought until 1870 ; 
it is to this language that the Alsatians owe their 
evenness of thought, their gift of clear and precise 
conceptions, and the refinement of their manners. 

The great argument of the Germanizers has 
always been that it was necessary to spare the 
Alsatians the serious inconvenience of being a bi- 
lingual people ; according to them, a nation where 
everybody simultaneously learns two languages in 
childhood is condemned to intellectual sterility; 
characters are floating and unstable ; never a poet, 
a thinker, a powerful personality can be born on 
such an unstable soil. Nothing is more false than 



Unchanging Alsace 307 

this observation. Without doubt a people whose 
historic destiny has followed a straight course, 
and which possesses only a single language and a 
single culture enjoys great privileges. "But these 
advantages are the product of a slow and con- 
stant evolution ; they are not acquired by sudden 
inoculations which, in place of transforming the 
organism, offer a serious risk of provoking dan- 
gerous disturbances in it. . . . Alsace, if it 
allowed itself to be drawn completely within the 
pale of one of the two civilizations which are 
struggling for its domination, would never assimi- 
late to the same degree as the Germans or the 
French the specific qualities which distinguish 
these two races, and it would thus risk losing 
precisely that which produces its originality, that 
is to say, its traditional role of an intellectual inter- 
mediary between the two peoples." As to pre- 
tending, as do the Germanizers, that the use of 
two languages would enfeeble minds, the example 
of the past in Alsace proves the contrary. The 
Alsatians who led the armies of the Republic 
and of the Empire, and those who founded the 
industries of their country, were surely of bold 
and strongly individualized natures. 

Besides, what culture do they expect to impose 
on Alsace? Is it the artistic and literary taste 
of the German Renaissance? Is it the spirit 



308 The Spell of Alsace 

which animated the great thinkers and poets of the 
beginning of the nineteenth century? No, it is 
the spirit of modern Germany. This has grown 
under the rule of force ; "its dominating spirit has 
often trammeled the flight of liberty and individual 
thought, and its constant endeavor to extend as 
far as possible its military, political, and economic 
power has left it no time for refining its manners 
and acquiring that taste, that balance, that mental 
equilibrium, which are the privileges of the nations 
which have used up their fiery vitality in a more 
distant past." 

Here the plea of M. Eccard which, do not for- 
get, is intended to convince Germans, becomes 
singularly skillful and impressive. " The Alsatian, 
independent by birth and somewhat rebellious by 
temperament, revolts at the idea of submitting 
to constraint, and the gifts with which another 
would endow him by force he not only does not 
accept but he returns to the maladroit giver. We 
do not wish this external and superficial Ger- 
manism which it is too often attempted to impose 
on the Alsatian population, but we wish to choose 
for ourselves whatever is noble, elevated, and 
grand in German civilization. For this we must 
have at our command an observatory whence we 
can overlook the whole of German culture and so 
discover what suits us and pleases us. Now, to 



Unchanging Alsace 309 

reach this elevated view of things, it is not sufficient 
that we should be fully conscious of our Alsatian 
particularism, it is also necessary that we should 
understand how a civilization rivaling that of 
Germany has understood the problems whose 
solution every great people seeks in history." 

And to the Germans who affect to disdain France 
without knowing her, here is the magnificent reply 
of the Alsatian: " Especially as to the language, 
we frequently hear a learned criticism made of it 
by people who have learned it only grammatically 
and who would not be capable of carrying on a 
conversation in it. It is especially reproached as 
being impoverished and as lacking sincerity. 
Impoverished, the tongue of Rabelais and of Victor 
Hugo, the speech which has been molded to the 
most diverse literary forms, from the romances of 
the Table Round to the modern decadents ! 
Without sincerity, the language of Calvin and of 
Pascal, of Taine and of Flaubert ! 

"If diplomats and men of the world are espe- 
cially fond of French in all lands, it is not, as 
has been asserted, because it permits them to 
conceal their thoughts — that can be done in 
any language — but because it is more beautiful, 
more elegant, and more luminous than its rivals. 
There is, perhaps, in German literature a greater 
depth of thought, a more intimate lyric power ; 



310 The Spell of Alsace 

this depends not on the superiority of the 
language, but on particular dispositions of 
German genius. German is richer in words and 
more flexible, it adapts itself easily to all forms of 
thought, and it is certain that it is much easier 
to translate into German than into French, but 
these very advantages are dangerous, they often 
lead to an absence of clearness and precision, 
to irresolution and obscurity in expression 
which would not be tolerated in French. . . . 

"Let them cease these attacks against the 
French language ! Let them discuss France from 
other points of view which are open to criticism, 
but let them leave intact the most perfect product 
of its genius ! The French language has become 
classic since the century of Louis XIV, by the same 
title as sculpture in antiquity, Gothic architecture 
in the Middle Ages, Italian painting during the 
Renaissance, German music at the present day. 
It is a work of art which has been slowly formed 
by an uninterrupted succession of writers of genius, 
and whose development still continues. 

"Well, we are not willing to be deprived of this 
treasure, and we will unite all our forces to pre- 
serve it." 

The treasure is in safe hands. As long as 
there is an Alsatian capable of writing such a page 
as that which we have just read, no one will be 



Unchanging Alsace 311 

able to say that the French language is a foreign 
tongue between the Vosges and the Rhine. This 
fine argument did not affect the German officials, 
but it converted many Alsatians. At Strasburg, 
where the Germanic element is the most numerous 
and powerful, French is again honored among the 
lower middle class, who were commencing to 
forget it ; courses and lessons have been organized ; 
clubs have been formed where French is spoken, 
and where French comedies are played ; in the 
evening students and young working people get 
together to talk and argue in French. And this 
example is already followed in other towns. 
Somewhat nonplused, the government watches 
silently a movement which baffles all its politics 
but against which it is helpless. . . . Thus con- 
tinues the work of Alsatian nationalism. . . . 

I have faithfully related what I have seen, what 
I have heard, and what I have read. A French- 
man must stop there when it is a question of 
Alsatian matters. Criticism and judgment are 
forbidden him. Our duty was to deliver the 
Alsatians, who paid our ransom with their liberty, 
and we have not fulfilled it. Being debtors who 
have not paid our debt, let us have the modesty 
not to offer advice to our creditors. Let us admire 
without reserve — history offers no more beautiful 



312 The Spell of Alsace 

spectacle — the stubbornness of this people which 
arises under the heel of the conqueror to protect 
its glory and its heritage, but let us never permit 
ourselves to discuss the object nor the methods of 
its policy, for they do not concern us. 

THE END 



NOTES 

Note 1. Page 3. The deliberations of the Municipal 
Council of Mulhouse were recorded in French until 1875, 
in both languages until 1887, and in German alone since 
1887. At this latter date Mulhouse ceased to have an 
elected mayor and passed under the administration of a 
professional burgomaster. 

Note 2. Page 5. The "Bunch of Grapes" was burned 
in 1873. 

Note 3. Page 30. Quoted from Dictionnaire topo- 
graphique, historique et statistique du Haul et du Bas-Rhin, 
byBaquol (1865). 

Note 4. Page 42. Those who desire to consult all the 
literature evoked by the paintings of Schongauer and those 
of Grunewald, are referred to the excellent Bibliographie de 
la ville.de Colmar, published under the auspices of the In- 
dustrial Society of Mulhouse and the town of Colmar, by 
M. Andre Waltz. (Colmar, 1902, Imprimerie Jussy et 
Cie.) 

Note 5. Page 44. These curious pages written in Ger- 
man, in a manuscript belonging to the library of Colmar, 
have been translated and published by M. Goutzwiller at 
the end of the book. 

Note 6. Page 55. The burgomaster of Riquewihr, M. 
Birkel, and some of his compatriots have founded a "Society 
for the Preservation of the Antiquities of Riquewihr." 

Note 7. Page 63. Mon sejour aupres de Voltaire, by his 
secretary Comte Alexandre Collini (Paris, 1807). 

Note 8. Page 63. M. Heid, in a lecture which he de- 
livered at Munster, April 24, 1897, drew an interesting pic- 

313 



314 Notes 

ture of the sojourn of Voltaire in Alsace (Bulletin de la Societe 
des Sciences, Agriculture et Arts de la Basse-Alsace, Fascicule 
No. 8, October, 1897). 

Note 9. Page 71. H. Taine, Derniers Essais de critique 
et d'histoire. A preliminary sketch of this beautiful word- 
picture of the forest of Sainte-Odile will be found in Taine's 
Carnets de voyage. 

Note 10. Page 72. Die Heidenmauer von St. Odilien, ihre 
prehistorischen Steinbrucke und Besiedelungsreste, by Dr. For- 
rer. The discoveries of Dr. Forrer have been summarized by 
M. Auguste Thierry-Mieg, in the Bulletin de la Societe in- 
dustrielle de Mulhouse, July, 1901. 

Note 11. Page 78. Some notes on the chateau of Saverne 
will be found in the sequel (page 257) . 

Note 12. Page 90. These figures are taken from an 
official publication of the German government, the Strass- 
burger Correspondenz (September 9, 1902). 

Note 13. Page 92. The French Society for the Protec- 
tion of Alsace-Lorraine rs (sitting of May 26, 1903) has 
stated that at the last summons to the colors (1902), 4,696 
persons left Alsace-Lorraine, and it had cognizance only of 
those who asked its assistance ; the actual number of emi- 
grants was very much greater. 

Note 14. Page 92. At Strasburg, where the total popu- 
lation at the time of writing was 150,000, 70,000 were Ger- 
man immigrants. 

Note 15. Page 93. This periodical — which is an abso- 
lutely neutral publication — reflects the whole national life 
of Alsace. The rare and delicate manner in which it is 
edited, illustrated, and printed suffice to demonstrate that 
there is actually an "Alsatian" taste, and that this is not 
German taste. 

Note 16. Page 96. Dr. Anton Nystrom, L 'Alsace- 
Lorraine, translated from the Swedish. Preface by Deputy 
A. Millerand. 



Notes 315 

Note 17. Page 109. No one has told it so prettily as 
M. de Nolhac, in the first chapter of his work on Marie 
Leszczynska. 

Note 18. Page 110. These letters to the Ghevalier de 
Vauchoux, which throw much light on the psychology of 
Stanislas Leszczynski, were published for the first time in 
the work of M. Henry Gauthier-Villars : Le Manage de 
Louis XV (one volume, published by Plon, 1900). 

Note 19. Page 115. M. E. Altorffer has published in the 
Strassburger Post of October 2, 1910, some extracts from the 
journal of a citizen of Wissembourg, Jean Christophe Scherer, 
who was at first shoemaker, later hotelkeeper, "At the sign 
of the Angel," and who died in 1788. It has seemed to me 
that the reader would see with pleasure the naive souvenirs 
of this worthy Alsatian upon the sojourn of the King of 
Poland at Wissembourg, and the marriage of Marie Lesz- 
czynska. "This King Stanislas was a very good lord, very 
handsome, and tall of stature. He was accustomed to sit 
upon the Salzbriick, and to smoke a very large pipe. He 
often rode horseback to go hunting with the officers. The 
Princess, his daughter, was very beautiful, and feared God. 
He resided in the 'German House' which now belongs to 
M. de Weber. Although the following of the King's house- 
hold, when he lived within our walls, was very small and very 
obscure, the grand sun of France, however, rose upon this 
court one day and gave it back its full splendor, for, in 1725, 
our very gracious King, Louis XV, chose for his wife the 
Princess Marie, brought up in the fear of God. This caused 
great pleasure and great joy in the town, for not only had 
we then the honor of seeing here the most distinguished 
princes of France, come to seek out the amiable Princess, 
but there also arrived among us the embassies of numerous 
foreign courts, bringing precious gifts, such as fine horses. 
Everybody went to court to pay homage to Her Royal High- 
ness. The magistrate of Wissembourg, the judges, the clergy 



316 Notes 

of both confessions, came to present her their congratulations. 
The day that this great event was celebrated a Te Deum was 
sung in all the churches. In the afternoon they distributed 
everywhere to the poor bread and wine, and wine was also 
given to the cavaliers of the garrison. In the evening they 
set off fireworks in the market place, the great square, and 
near the church of Saint John. There was an illumination 
in the garden of the 'German House'; the Queen threw 
silver from the windows and gave alms. Everybody wore 
the yellow livery of the Queen; the cockades of the hats 
and the harnesses of the horses were of this color; and as 
there were not enough ribbons, they used yellow paper. 
For several days nobody worked, and the whole town lived 
magnificently and joyously. The market was so good that 
a muid of oats brought three to four livres, and a pound of 
butter five sous. In those days we had not yet made the 
acquaintance of the numerous taxes and contributions from 
which we unhappily suffer today. At the moment when the 
Queen departed they set up maypoles all the way from her 
house to the Haguenau Gate. Before the gate the school 
children of both confessions and the citizens were drawn up 
in review; at their head were the young men of the town, 
with music and flags. As the Queen passed by in her car- 
riage she looked at this sight with satisfaction, and listened 
to the performance of her favorite march. Full of joy, she 
began to laugh and beat her breast. That evening our young 
people amused themselves very much. But the court had 
departed, and this was the end of our joy." 

Note 20. Page 137. Since writing the above I have had 
the opportunity of seeing a very interesting study by M. 
Paul Albert Helmer, on the Manufactures d'armes blanches 
d' Alsace. (These factories were established at Klingenthal, 
in the territory of Boersch.) I have found a decision of the 
Grand Chapter of Strasburg (March 28, 1733), submitting 
the inhabitants of Klingenthal to the jurisdiction of the 



Notes 317 

bailiff of Boersch; "Conclusum fuerit satrapae memorati loci 
Boersch, etc. . . ." The appellation was therefore conse- 
crated. It is nevertheless extraordinary. 

Note 21. Page 144. Since then the profanation has 
continued. In the court of the convent they have built 
a great hotel, whose walls covered with zinc offend the sight 
from as far as one can see the summit of Sainte-Odile. On 
the terrace the restaurant building has been removed to 
another spot, but is none the less horrible. And I say noth- 
ing of the inscriptions erected on all sides to point out to the 
pilgrims the chapels, the viewpoints, and so forth. The Al- 
satians are not the last to protest against these abominations. 

Note 22. Page 178. Stendhal. There are, upon Alfieri, 
in Rome, Naples and Florence (page 359), several pages of 
rare beauty, which Stendhal says that he had translated 
from the notebooks of a certain Count Neri. 

Note 23. Page 193. We are ignorant what this office was. 

Note 24. Page 196. On Ferrette, Delille at Luppach and 
La Marteliere, I have consulted and put to use a very in- 
teresting work published by M. L. Manhart in the Express de 
Mulhouse (1904-1905). Under the guise of informal descrip- 
tions it is a series of precise and conscientious essays in which 
the author has presented with emotion the history and the 
legends of the Sundgau. M. L. Manhart has communicated 
to me the curious letter of La Marteliere, which I have quoted, 
and which had not previously been published. 

Note 25. Page 206. Parts II, III, and IV, of 1909 

Note 26. Page 225. In an essay by M. F. Dollinger, 
which was published in the Revue alsacienne illustree (1906), 
there is a very lively portrait of the Count de Leusse. 

Note 27. Page 237. I must add that some very interest- 
ing documents, which may be found at Strasburg, in the de- 
partmental and municipal archives, were called to my atten- 
tion by M. Seyboth, the curator of the Strasburg Museum, 
now deceased, and by his assistant, M. lung. 



318 Notes 

Note 28. Page 259. Grandidier poete, by A. M. P. In- 
gold (Revue alsacienne illustree, October, 1903). 

Note 29. Page 263. Courrier de Strasbourg, October 1, 
1792. I borrow this detail, as well as many others, from a 
very interesting compilation by Le Roy de Sainte-Croix : Les 
Quatre Cardinaux de Rohan en Alsace. 

Note 30. Page 287. The word oriel is not commonly 
employed in French, as I know and regret. I heard it spoken 
for the first time by Alsatians, although it is, I believe, of 
Norman origin. It is charming, and we have no other to 
designate a bay window carried on corbels on the facade of 
a house. Echauguette implies a turret ; breteche is a term of 
military architecture. In the vocabulary of the modern 
French architect oriel might advantageously replace the 
odious bow-window. 

Note 31. Page 298. I have previously mentioned the 
situation of the industries of Mulhouse (Page 16). 

Note 32. Page 298. Revue alsacienne illustree (Nos. II 
and III, 1909), translation published by the Journal d' Alsace- 
Lorraine. 

Note 33. Page 299. We have tried to demonstrate this 
in the chapter "Alsace in 1903," and in that in which we 
have commented on the romance of M. Barres: In the 
Service of Germany. 

Note 34. Page 306. Of the dangers which menace 
Alsatian nationality there is none more serious. The gaps 
which emigration has made in the bourgeoisie are scarcely 
filled by men coming from the country, who have come up 
and enriched themselves by force of talent and energy. Now 
it is certain that many of these do not speak French, scarcely 
understand it, hesitate to speak it, and often prefer to give 
it up entirely rather than be made fun of for improper ex- 
pression or faults of pronunciation. That is why, in the 
minds of so many Alsatians, instruction in French has at 
present become the capital question. 



INDEX 



Aar River, xviii. 

Adolph of Nassau, 4. 

vEdui, xii. 

Alans, xiii. 

Albany, Countess of, 166-180. 

Albert, M. Henri, 196. 

Albigeois, 53. 

Alfieri, 166, 180. 

Allemanni, xiv. 

Alsace regarded as hostile terri- 
tory, xxx. 

Alsatian architecture, 285-291. 

Alsatian art, 23. 

Alsatian bourgeoisie, 296-298. 

Alsatian character, 145-147. 

Alsatian civilians punished, 
xxxvii. 

Alsatian deserters, xxxv. 

Alsatian insubordination, xxxv. 

Alsatian nationalism, 298-302. 

Alsatian peasant house, 120- 
125, 140. 

Alsatian policy of Germany, 
293-295. 

Alsatian popular art, 123. 

Alsatian taste, 285-291. 

Alsatian tradition, 125-129, 
139. 



Altenberg, 216. 
Altkirch, 181. 
Altorf, 266. 
Ammerschwihr, 50. 
Andlau, 81, 266, 289. 
Annibal, Charles Bernard, 

Baron of Reisenbach, 98 
Anti-clerical policy of France, 

95. 
Ariovistus, xi, xii, 132. 
Armagnacs, 76. 
Atticus, Duke of Alsace, xiv, 

76, 77. 
Attila, xiii, xiv. 

B 

Babet, Voltaire's cookmaid, 59. 

Back, 304. 

Baden, Margrave of, 214. 

Bale, 9. 

Bale, Prince Bishop of, 62. 

Barkentien, Feldwebel, xxxi. 

Baroque architecture, 198. 

Barres, Maurice, 94. 

Barres, Maurice, In the Service 

of Germany, 148-163. 
Barth, Georges, 282. 
Bartholdi, 34. 
Bartman, Charles, 137. 



319 



320 



Index 



Bartman, Frangois Joseph, 

135-137. 
Bavaria, 53 
Bayle, Dictionary, 61. 
Bazin, Rene, Les Oberle, 73-75, 

138. 
Beatus Rhenanus, 64. 
Beck-Bernard, Madame Lina, 

179. 
Behr, Marie Odilie, 136. 
Belfort, 17. 
Belgium, xxix. 
Benedictines, 137. 
Benque of Besangon, 28. 
Bernard of Saxe- Weimar, xxii. 
Berthold, Bishop of Strasburg, 

34. 
Besangon, xii, xx. 
Biber, 108. 
Bied, 9. 

Biehler, Jean Baptiste, xxxiii. 
Birckenwald, 80-82. 
Birkenfeld, Prince of, 243, 244. 
Bismarck, xxxviii, 95, 290, 293. 
Blondel, 283. 
Blucher, 226. 
Blumenthal, 299. 
Bode, Baron Auguste de, 205- 

219. 
Bode, Baroness de, 205-219. 
Bodin, Anne, 238. 
Bodin, Catherine, 238 
Boersch, 134-137, 139. 
Boffrand, 235, 239. 
Bologna, 174. 
Bonn, 238. 

Bourdon, Sebastian, 223 
Bourg, Marshal du, 114. 
Bourtzwiller, xxxiii. 



Bouxwiller, 186. 
Boxtel, Capt. de, 142. 
Briey Basin, xxix. 
Brionne, Countess de, 281 
Brou, Marshal de, 242-247. 
Bruat, Admiral, 34. 
Bueswiller, 116, 118, 124, 125. 
Buhl, 30. 
Burgundians, xiii. 
Burgundy, xx, xxi. 
Bussierre family, 224, 225. 

C 

Cadet-Roussel, 50. 

Caesar, Commentaries, xi, xii. 

Caffieri, 222. 

Cagliostro, 253. 

Capuchins, 62, 63, 137. 

Carlsruhe, 215. 

Casimir, Jean, Elector and 

Count Palatine, 5. 
Catherine, Empress, 218. 
Celtic population, xiii. 
Chalons, xiii, 238. 
Chambord, 111. 
Charles III, Duke of Lorraine, 

xxix. 
Charles the Bold, xv, xix-xxi. 
Charles the Fat, xv. 
Charles the Simple, xvii. 
Charles Eugene, Duke of Wurt- 

emberg, 58, 59. 
Charles Theodore, Palatine 

Elector, 57. 
Chartier, Alain, 261. 
Chassin, 282. 
Chateaubriand, 32, 169. 
Chateauroux, Madame de, 273. 



Index 



321 



Choiseul, Due de, 283. 
Chronique de Senones, 132. 
Cistercians, 201, 204. 
Clarke, Marshal, Duke of 

Feltre, Count of Hunebourg, 

98. 
Clement XII, 27. 
Clovis, xiv. 
Collini, 57, 59, 62. 
Colmar, iii, xii, 34-49, 50, 52, 

56, 58, 61, 62, 267, 269, 289. 
Cologne, Archbishop Elector 

of, 205, 207, 209, 213. 
Comacio, Thomas, 257. 
Combes, 299. 
Committee of Public Safety, 

188, 192. 
Compagnie des Indes, 9. 
Congress of Vienna, xxvii. 
Conradin, xvii. 
Cordes, 53. 

Cotte, Fremin de, 237. 
Cotte, Robert de, 236-252. 
Cuyp, 223. 

D 

Dalheim, xxxiii. 

Dantzig, 20. 

D'Argenville, Lives of the 

Famous Architects, 238. 
David, 47. 

Decapolis, xviii, xxv, xxvi. 
Delamaire, 235. 
Delille, Abbe Marie Joseph 

Chenier de, 187. 
Denis, Madame, 63. 
Denque, 269. 
Desgrandchamps, Philippe 

Xavier, 182-183, 186. 



Deux-Ponts, 107. 

Dietrich, Louise von, 224. 

Dollfus, Jean, 13. 

Dollfus, Jean Henri, 8. 

Dollinger, F., 206. 

Dorsner, Baron, 98. 

Douay, General Abel, 301. 

Drevet, 239. 

Dreyfus affair, 94. 

Du Phenix, 112. 

Dupont, advocate at Colmar, 

58. 
Diirer, Albert, 42, 48. 

E 

Ebersmunster, 266, 267. 

Ebhardt, Bodo, 67. 

Eccard, 304. 

Edict of Nantes, 9. 

Eguisheim, 165, 166. 

Ehn River, 76, 137. 

Elsasshausen, 220. 

Emigration from Alsace, 91-92. 

Engelbach, 262. 

English companies, 76. 

Ensisheim, 18. 

Ernest, Father, 62. 

Erwin of Steinbach, 28. 

Eschgriesler, 30. 

Etienne and Martainville, 191. 

Ettendorf, 116, 118, 119. 

Ettenheim, 253. 

Ettich, xiv, xviii. 

F 

Fabre, 172, 174. 
Ferdinand, Emperor, xxiii. 



322 



Index 



Ferdinand Charles, Archduke, 

xxiii, xxv. 
Ferrette, 180-196. 
Ferrette, County of, xix, xx, xxi. 
Feudal System, xvi. 
Fichter, Valerie, xxxvii. 
Fischer, Captain, xxxi. 
Flach, Jacques, Le Chevalier 

de Rosemont, 138. 
Flanders, 53. 
Fleckenstein, Barony of, 205, 

211. 
Florence, 170, 171. 
Florival, 30, 33. 
Fontaines, Madame de, 60. 
Francis of Lorraine, 223. 
Franconis, 54. 
Frankfort, 57, 238. 
Frederick of Dietrich, 224. 
Frederick the Great, 57, 60, 61. 
French language agitation, 

304-311. 
French language in Alsace, 

89-90. 
Fribourg, 273. 
Froeschwiller, 220. 
Fulda, 206. 
Furstenberg, Cardinal Egon 

de, 235, 257. 

G 

Galle, 138. 

Gamshart, Oswald de, 12. 

Gayot, 283. 

German cruelties in Alsace, 

xxxi, xxxii, xxxiv. 
German invasions of Alsace, 

xii, xiii. 



Glehn, M. de, 15. 

Gneisse, 303. 

Goethe, 71, 72, 195, 261-263, 

279-280, 283. 
Goetz, Jean Georges, 289. 
Goll family, 58. 
Gotha, Duchess of, 57. 
Gothic architecture, 3, 39, 76, 

79, 97, 105, 199, 200, 286, 289. 
Gouraud, General, xii. 
Goutzwiller, Charles, 44. 
Grandidier, Abbe, 259-261. 
Greco-Roman architecture, 28, 

29. 
Grien, Hans Baldung, 42. 
Grimaldi family, 184. 
Grunewald, Mathias, 41, 42, 

44. 
Guebwiller, 26, 27, 267, 269, 

270. 
Gustavus Adolphus, xxii. 
Gyss, Canon, 77. 

H 

Habichtsburg, xviii. 
Haguenau, 197-204, 282 
Hanau, Count of, 246. 
Hanau-Lichtenberg, 118 
Hannongs, 284. 
Hansi, 300, 303. 
Hapsburg family, xvii. 
Hartmannsweilerkopf, xxx. 
Haussmann, Baron, 34. 
Haut-Rhin, 35, 46. 
Heckeler, 289. 
Helmer, Paul Albert, xxx, 

xxxiv. 
Henner, 40. 



Index 



323 



Henry II of France, xxix. 
Henry the Fowler, xvii. 
Herrenstein, Castle of, 97. 
Hesse-Darmstadt, Prince of, 

119. 
Hildebrand, sculptor, 84. 
History of the French Theatre, 

The, 191. 
Hoche, 216. 
Hohenburg, 149. 
Hohenstauffen family, xvii. 
Hohkoenigsbourg, Castle of, 

66-69, 295. 
Hohlandsberg, Lord of, 50. 
Holbein, Hans, 52, 77. 
Holy Roman Empire, xxii. 
Honorius, xiii. 
Horbourg, Castle of, 59. 
Hugh, Duke of Alsace, xv. 
Huguenin, Mantz et Cie., 7. 
Huguenin, Paul, Jr., 7. 
Humbret, Maistres, 39. 
Huns, xiii. 



Ill River, 181, 251, 254. 
Ingersheim, Nicolas Jacques d', 

80. 
Institute, French, 190. 
Isenbourg, Castle of, 20. 
Isnard, Chevalier d', 282. 
Issenheim, 21, 41, 44, 45, 46, 

47, 48. 
Issenheim altar, 44-48. 



Jablonowska, Anne, 108. 
Jaegly, Theophile, xxxviii. 



Jelensperger, Daniel, 7. 

Jemmapes, 215. 

Jesuit architecture, 28. 

Jesuits, 59, 61, 62, 268. 

John of Dietrich, 223, 224, 227. 

Jude, 186. 

Julius II, 12. 

K 

Kaiserslautern, 216. 
KarpfT, alias Casimir, 46, 47. 
Kaysersberg, 50, 52. 
Keller, H., 92. 
Kiener, Fritz, 297, 298. 
Kinnersley, Mary, Baroness 

de Bode, 205-219. 
Kleber, General, xiii, 35, 95, 

290. 
Klingenthal, 76. 
Koechlin, Samuel, 8. 
Koechlin, Schmaltzer et Cie., 

9. 
Kroust, Father, 62. 
Kubler, 302. 
Kuneyel, Fritsch, xxxiii. 



Labre, Benoit, 186. 

La Fere, Siege of, 6. 

La Grange, Marquis de, 231. 

Lalance, M., 15. 

La Marteliere, Jean Henri, 

190-196. 
Lambyrin, 133. 
Lancret, 258. 
Landau, xxv. 
Langel, 299. 



324 



Index 



La Rochelle, 237. 

Lassurance, 239. 

La Tour d'Auvergne, Henri 

Osw£ild de, 246. 
Lauch River, 26, 30, 37. 
Lautenbach, 33. 
Lauter River, 104. 
League of Ten Cities, xviii, 52. 
Le Blanc, 188. 
Le Chevalier, 242-247. 
Lefebvre, General, 8, 20, 290. 
Le Lorrain, Robert, 235, 250- 

252, 257. 
Leo IX, Pope, 166. 
Leszczynska, Marie, Queen of 

France, 109-115, 271, 273. 
Leszczynski, Stanislas, King of 

Poland, 107-115, 271. 
Leusse, Count de, 225-227. 
Lichtenberger, M., 196. 
Lille, 206. 
Lorraine, xxix. 
Lorraine, Duke of, 107, 132. 
Lothaire, xv. 
Lothaire II, xv. 
Lotharingia, xv. 
Louis IX, xix. 
Louis XIII, 81. 
Louis XIV, xix, xxv, xxvi, 

xxvii, 9, 64, 184, 209, 239, 

266. 
Louis XV, 110-114, 234, 271, 

273, 278. 
Louis XVI, 80. 
Louis XVIII, 98. 
Louis Napoleon, 264. 
Louis the German, xv. 
Luneville, 273. 
Luppach, 186-190. 



Luttenbach, 60. 

Lutzelbourg, Count Renaud 

de, 203. 
Lutzen, xxii. 
Luze, Jacques de, 9. 
Lyons, 63. 

M 

MacMahon, General, 221, 225, 

226. 
Mages, 267 
Majorelle, 138. 
Malade, Etienne, 254. . 
Maltzen, Mademoiselle de, 168. 
Mandeville, Colonel de, 99. 
Mannheim, 190. 
Mansart, Jules Hardouin, 237, 

239. 
Mantz, Jean, 7. 
Marcel, Pierre, 236. 
Maria Theresa, 207. 
Marie Antoinette, 222, 271, 

278-280. 
Marmoutier, 79-80, 202, 266, 

289. 
Marquaire, 46, 47. 
Marseillaise, xxxvii, xxxviii, 

xliii. 
Martinsbourg, Castle of, 165- 

180. 
Martyrdom of Saint Marguerite, 

123. 
Massol, 237, 247, 248, 249, 

281, 289. 
Mathieu, 224. 
Mazarin, 184. 
Medal of French Fidelity, 

xxxix. 



Index 



325 



Menoux, Father, 62. 
Merat, Father, 61, 62. 
Meszczeck, Baron de, 108. 
Metz, xxix, 273. 
Moder River, 116, 197, 203, 

204. 
Mollinger, 286. 
Monaco, Prince of, 184. 
Montaigne, 4-6, 170. 
Montalembert, 32. 
Montbarey, Mademoiselle de, 

224. 
Montbeliard, Dukes of, 53. 
Montfort, Salins de, 223, 263. 
Mont Sainte-Odile, 138. 
Morsbronn, 220. 
Moser, Nicolas, 7. 
Mulhouse, iii, xviii, xxii, xxv, 

xxix, xxxv, 1-17, 92. 
Munster, 60. 
Murbach, 26, 30, 184, 266. 

N 

Nancy, xxi. 
Naples, xvii. 
Napoleon I, 254. 
Napoleon III, 67. 
Nassau-Sarrebruck, Prince of, 

206, 223. 
Natoire, 235. 
Neaulme, Jean, 60. 
Neubourg, 201-204, 266. 
Neuwiller, 97-100, 266. 
Nieck, Ignace, xxxiii. 
Nieck, Paul, xxxiii. 
Niederhaslach, 266. 
Niedermunster, 144. 
Nietzsche, 196. 



Noailles, Count de, 278. 
Nordgau, xviii. 
Notre Dame, 229. 
Nuremberg, 36. 
Nystrom, Dr. Anton, 96 A 

O 

Oberkampf factory at Jouy, 9. 1 
Oberkirch, Baroness of, 223, 

252. 
Obermodern, 116, 117, 118. 
Obernai, 70, 75-77, 137. 
Olber wine, 30. 

Opalinski, Catherine, 113, 118 
Oppenort, 239. 
Orbey Valley, 50. 
Otto, 133. 

Otto, Dr. Mark, xxiii. 
Ottrott, 141-143. 



Parabere, 114, 272. 

Pardaillan, 114, 272. 

Paris, 57, 176, 177, 238. 

Parrocel, 250. 

Pasture, Roger de la, 42. 

Patte, 240. 

Paule, Sieur, 251. 

Peace Conference, xi. • 

Peace of Nimwegen, xxv, 132. 

Peace of Ryswick, xxvi, 231. 

Peace of Westphalia, xxii, 53, 

231. 
Peasants' War, xxi. 
Perdrigue, M., 246. 
Pfeffel, Gottfried Conrad, 179. 
Pfleger, 299. 



326 



Index 



Philippe V, Count of Hanau- 

Lichtenberg, 118. 
Piedmont, 170. 
Pierrefonds, 67. 
Pius VI, 171. 
Plombieres, 60. 
Plutarch, 170. 
Poinsot, President, 186. 
Pompadour, Madame de, 57, 

60. 
Potsdam, 57. 

Pottle, Lieutenant Emory, xi. 
Pradal, General Augustin, 99. 
Preiss, 299. 

Prie, Madame de, 110, 112. 
Provence, xvii. 

R 

Radbod, xviii. 

Rapp, General, 20, 34, 290. 

Rathsamhausen, Casimir de, 

27, 269. 
Ravannes, Abbe de, 244. 
Reformation, 118. 
Regency style, 239. 
Reichshoffen, Chateau of, 220- 

227. 
Rembrandt, 223. 
Renaissance, 63. 
Renaissance architecture, x, 2, 

19, 35, 36, 76, 81, 106, 197, 

200, 240. 
Renaissance art, 23. 
Revocation of the Edict of 

Nantes, xxvi. 
Revolution, French, xxvii, 45, 

51, 64, 137, 184, 187, 191, 

212, 254, 263. 



Revue Alsacienne illustree, 93. 
Rhine, xxii, xliv. 
Ribeaupierre, Lord of, 50. 
Richelieu, Cardinal, xxii, 273. 
Richer, 132. 
Riesling wine, 54. 
Rigaud, 234, 238. 
Riquewihr, 50, 53. 
Riquewihr, architecture of, 56. 
Riquewihr, vine growing at, 54. 
Ritter of GuebwiUer, 28. 
Ritter, Gabriel Ignatius, 270. 
Robbers, The, 191, 195. 
Robert, the Robber Chief, 191- 

195. 
Robespierre, 187. 
Rohan, Cardinals de, 70, 232- 

265. 
Rohan, Louis de, 80. 
Rohan-Guemenee, Louis 

fidouard de, 214, 252-254, 

263, 272. 
Rohan-Guemenee-Montbazon, 

Louis Constantin de, 252, 

262. 
Rohan-Rochefort, Princess de, 

260. 
Rohan-Soubise, Armand Gas- 
ton de, 233-252, 257. 
Rohan-Soubise, family of, 205. 
Rohan-Soubise, Francois de, 

235. 
Rohan - Soubise - Ventadour, 

Francois Armand de, 252. 
Roll of Honor of the French 

Army for Alsatians, xxxix. 
Romanesque architecture, 21, 
8 27, 29, 33, 52, 79, 97, 104, 

130, 144, 199. 



Index 



327 



Rosheim, 130-134. 
Rothenburg, 36, 53. 
Rothjacob, Bailiff of Soultz, 

208, 219. 
Rouffach, 19. 
Rouget de l'lsle, xliii. 
Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 178. 
Rudolph of Hapsburg, 4. 

S 

Saint Arbogast, Church at 

Rouffach, 20. 
Saint Bernard, 204. 
Saint Die, 188. 
Saint-Jean-des-Choux, 82. 
Saint-Leonard, 137-141. 
Saint Odilie, xiv, 70, 76, 77. 
Saint-Simon, 233. 
Sainte-Beuve, 172, 174, 187. 
Sainte-Odile, 70-75, 143, 149. 
Saintonge, 9. 
Salen, Count of, 131-132. 
Salle, Marquise de, 259. 
San Gimignano, 53. 
Sand, George, 194. 
Sarger, Jean Jacques, 268, 269, 

282. 
Sarre Valley, xliv. 
Sarrelouis, 207. 
Satrap of Boersch, 135-137. 
Saussard, Sieur, 246. 
Saverne, 78, 79, 233, 234, 244, 

252, 257, 276. 
Saxe, Christine de, 259. 
Schalkendorf, 116, 117, 118, 

119. 
Scherb, Chevalier Leopold 

Elisee, 99. 



Schiller, 190-196. 
Schlestadt, 63-66. 
Schlestadt, Death mask of, 65. 
Schmaltzer, J. J., 8, 9. 
Schoepflin, Joseph, 59. 
Schongauer, Martin, 24, 39, 

40, 41. 
Schott, Benjamin, xxxiii. 
Schwetzingen, 57. 
Schwindenhammer, Jean 

Henri, 190-196. 
Schworbrief, xix. 
Sechelles, Herault de, 45. 
Sequani, xi, xii. 
Sevigne, Madame de, 233. 
Siena, 171. 

Sigismund, Archduke, xix-xxi. 
Sigismund Francis, Archduke, 

xxv. 
Sisters of Saint Vincent de 

Paul, 111. 
Sohr, Battle of, 60. 
Sommer, Louis, xxxiii. 
Soultz-Sous-Forets, 205-219. 
Sovereign Council of Alsace, 

xx vi. 
Spetz, M. Georges, 21. 
Spindler, Charles, 138-141. 
Sporrer family, 270. 
Stael, Madame de, 196. 
Stendhal, Rome, Naples and 

Florence, 172. 
Stichaner, Kreisdirector, 103. 
Stockle, Simon Dominique, 99. 
Stolberg, Aloisia de, Countess 

of Albany, 166-180. 
Strasburg, iii, xviii, xxii, xxv, 

xxvi, 57, 58, 83, 114, 124, 

214, 224, 231, 233, 234, 235, 



328 



Index 



242, 248, 252, 253, 274, 
282. 

Strasburg, Alsatian Museum, 
127. 

Strasburg, French entry into, 
xl, xliv. 

Strasburg, University of, 95. 

Stuart, Pretender Charles Ed- 
ward, 168-171. 

Sundgau, xvii, xviii, xxi, 181, 
188, 189. 



Taine, 71, 283. 
Tarlo, Count, 108. 
Temptation of Saint Anthony, 

42. 
Terrier, Gabriel du, 81. 
Teutonic names, xiii. 
Teutsch, Edouard, 301. 
Thann, xxx. 
Third Order of Saint Francis, 

73. 
Thirty Years' War, xxi, 102, 

125, 185, 231. 
Titian, 44. 
Toul, xxix. 

Treaty of Bale, xxvii. 
Treaty of Cateau Cambresis, 

xxix. 
Treaty of Luneville, 54. 
Treaty of Mersen, xv. 
Treaty of Munster, xxii-xxv. 
Treaty of Saint Omer, xx. 
Treaty of the Pyrenees, xxiv. 
Treaty of Verdun, xv. 
Turckheim, Battle of, 19. 
Turenne, 19. 
Tuscany, 53, 170, 174. 



U 

Unterlinden, Cloister of, 21, 
24, 40, 52. 



Valentinois family, 184. 
Valfons, Marquis de, 233, 244, 

257. 
Valmy, 215. 
Vandals, xiii. 
Vauchoux, Chevalier de, 110, 

113. 
Vauvenargues, 240. 
Verdun, xxix, 238. 
Vernier, Napoleon, 183. 
Versailles, 111, 229, 237, 238, 

240. 
Vesontio, xii. 
ViUa Strozzi, 171, 179. 
Viollet-le-Duc, 67. 
Virgin in a Thicket of Roses, 

The, 39, 41. 
Virgin of the Spetz Collection, 

24. 
Vogelweid, M., 185. 
Voltaire, 56-63, 175. 

W 

Wagner, 196. 

Walbourg, 199. 

Walcourt, Joseph Antoine 

Georges de, 168. 
Waltz, Andre, 269. 
War of 1870, 64. 
Weber, 107. 
Weis, 273, 274. 
Weiss River, 50, 53. 
Wellington, 226. 



Index 



329 



Werner of Hapsburg, xvii, 

xviii. 
Wetterle, Abbe, xxxv, 299, 301, 

303. 
Wettolsheim, 165, 179. 
Weyland, 262. 
Wilhelm II, 66, 67, 96, 294. 
Wimpff, 108. 
Wissembourg, xxv, 101-115, 

198, 216, 272, 301. 
Wittich, Professor Werner, 

163. 
Woerth, 220. 



Wurmser, 216. 

Wurtemberg, Dukes of, 53, 54. 



York, Cardinal, 171. 
Ypres, 53. 

Z 

Zillisheim, 96. 

Zix, 254. 

Zorn River, 82. 

Zorn von Bulach, 303. 

Zutzendorf, 116. 



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